What Happened Last Night
by ForeverSam
Summary: A little alcohol can go a long way. Rukia and Ichigo discover this the hard way when they wake up in bed together, with no clue how they got there [IchigoRukia, Rating for Sexual Content and Language, DISCLAIMER: I Do Not Own Bleach][COMPLETE!]
1. The Morning After

* * *

**What Happened Last Night**

_By: ForeverSam_

* * *

Ichigo groaned as he stirred. His head was pounding. What the hell had happened to him? 

He remembered being at party...someone was throwing a party...for some reason. And he had been invited. But that didn't explain why his head hurt. Or why he didn't remember leaving the party.

And then he realized; someone must have spiked the punch. It was the only logical reason to why everything was so fuzzy. He'd been dead drunk. Oh wonderful. Oh how freakin' wonderful.

As he started to open his eyes, he heard someone sigh, and felt something rub against him. And then he realized; _he wasn't alone in bed._

* * *

Rukia squinted her eyes as the bright sun assaulted her eyelids. She had the mother of all headaches, and certainly wasn't in the mood to wake up and face the day. She'd rather just lay in bed and sleep. And try and remember when the last time she had alcohol was. Because of course, that was the only reasonable explanation as to why it felt like someone was taking a jackhammer to her head. 

She remembered being at a party with Ichigo and Orihime...she wasn't sure what it was for, maybe a birthday or something...and to her knowledge there hadn't been any alcohol...

Rukia sighed and rolled over onto her side. Well, laying in bed all day wasn't going to get anything done. As she rolled over again, she brushed up against something. And she froze. Dear lord. There was someone else in bed with her.

* * *

Ichigo and Rukia opened their eyes at the same time. They looked over at each other at the same time. And boy did they freak out at the same time. "YAH!" Ichigo yelled, scrambling as far away from Rukia has he could without actually getting out of bed, "What the fuck are you doing in my bed?!" 

"How the hell should I know?!" she yelled back, grabbing the covers and pulling them over her body. Her very naked body.

"Oh crap," Ichigo paled and looked down at himself, "Oh _crap_...Rukia...did we...I mean...did we..."

It took Rukia a second to figure out what he meant. Then she looked down at herself. And she turned beet red. "Oh damn..."

His horror filled brown eyes met her shock filled violet ones. "Oh god," Ichigo managed to croak before he scrambled out of bed. A slight breeze went through the room. He turned as red as Rukia, who, thankfully, had the decency to look away. He dove for his boxers (why they were on the floor under his bed he sure as _hell_ didn't want to know), and shoved them on.

"So let me get this straight," Rukia had become fascinated in the wall, "Did we...or didn't we?"

"I uh...uh..." Ichigo choked on the words, "I don't know. I mean, we might have...we could have...but wouldn't we remember?"

Rukia was blinking rather fast now. "Not if we were really drunk. But I don't see how...there wasn't any alcohol at the party..."

"Someone could have spiked the punch," Ichigo said reasonably, "In which case it wouldn't be our fault, and we'd be entitled to _murder_ someone"

Even though he was trying to sound calm and logical, the entire time he spoke all he could was look at Rukia, and imagine what she looked like under the blanket. Thank god she still had her back to him. He quickly busied himself by examining the floor. And saw a mix of his and Rukia's clothes there. Oh God. "Uh..." he coughed, "Maybe we should uh, you know...get dressed and stuff"

"Yeah. Get dressed. Right," she finally looked back at him. Her eyes were still wide with shock. "You know, it's a good thing your Dad's away and your sisters are both at a friend's house"

"You're telling me," Ichigo muttered, grabbing some new clothes from his bureau. "I'm going to uh...go take a shower. It's Saturday right?"

"Yeah. Okay," he was relieved to get out of there. As soon as he was in the bathroom he leaned against the wall and buried his face into his hands. _Lord, tell me we didn't. Please tell me we didn't._

* * *

Rukia quickly got dressed, then separated her clothes on the floor from Ichigo's – she didn't want to know, she didn't want to know – and threw them into the closet. She'd get situated later, when she wasn't shaken to the core. Right now all she wanted to do was get the hell out of the house. She scribbled a quick note for Ichigo, saying she'd gone out for a walk, then jumped lightly out the window, and made her way down the street. She had just turned the corner when someone yelled, "Hey Rukia!" and she looked around. Tatsuki and Orihime were running towards her. 

"Oh, hi Tatsuki, hi Orihime," Rukia quickly put on a smile and gave them a wave.

"Hey," Orihime smiled as they caught up to Rukia, "Did you have fun last night?"

Rukia froze. "Say _what_?!"

Tatsuki and Orihime exchanged looks. "You know...at the party"

"Oh!" Rukia laughed, "Right the party! Yeah, the party was fun, I had a lot of fun, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Orihime nodded while Tatsuki shrugged, "Did you know someone spiked the punch?"

Rukia's world came to a crashing halt. "Say what?"

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SPIKED THE PUNCH?!?!" Ichigo yelled at the top of his voice, ignoring the fact that his head felt like it was ready to split in half. Keigo and Mizuiro shrank back, scared. 

"Yeah, you know..." Keigo looked around, "As a joke. You drank a lot of it, and we were kind of worried about whether or not you got home, but we saw you leave with Rukia, so we kind of assumed she got you home..."

Ichigo relaxed. For about half a second. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I LEFT WITH RUKIA?!"

* * *

"I left with _who_?!" Rukia asked indigently. She, Orihime, and Tatsuki had gone to a nearby coffee shop to get some donuts and coffee. Orihime was cracking up. 

"Ichigo," Tatsuki repeated after hushing her friend. "You mean you don't remember?"

"_I_ left with _who_?!"

* * *

"So you really don't remember?" Keigo asked Ichigo cautiously. 

"No you moron, I don't remember!" Ichigo shouted, losing what little control he had left over his temper. Keigo sent Mizuiro a "save me!" look.

"Ichigo, it's no big deal," Mizuiro said calmly, "I don't think she drank all that much punch, she probably just wanted to make sure you got home okay. All though I did think it was a little weird you two were making out in the corner..."

It took Ichigo a second to process this. "WHAT WERE WE DOING?!"

* * *

"What do you mean we were making out?!" now even Tatsuki was laughing. 

"Jeez Rukia, how much punch did you have?"

"This isn't funny!" Rukia was ready to have a melt down now, "We were...we were..."

"Yes, you made out with Ichigo Kurosaki," Tatsuki wiped the tears away from her eyes, "We all saw it, and when you guys left everyone started talking..."

* * *

"Talking about _what_ exactly?" Ichigo asked Mizuiro suspiciously. 

"Well, you know..." Mizuiro gave Ichigo an all-knowing look, "No one was really sure how much punch you had, and we don't know where Rukia lives, all we know is she went the same way as you, so you know, we all just kind of assumed you would..."

"Would _what_?"

* * *

"Well, you know..." Tatsuki looked at Orihime, and the two started giggling again. Rukia turned a shade of red that would have put Renji's hair to shame. 

"Oh, don't worry about it Rukia," Orihime tried to reassure her friend, "I'm sure nothing happened. Now if you two woke up together this morning, that would be a different story..."

* * *

"Dude...you guys_ didn't _wake up together, did you?" Keigo asked Ichigo, almost eagerly. He was rewarded with a punch in the face. 

"Okay," Mizuiro grabbed Keigo by the head and started to drag him out, "I'd say that's our cue to leave. See you later Ichigo"

* * *

Tatsuki and Orihime's eyes were wider than their untouched donuts. "Rukia...tell me you didn't...you didn't, did you?" 

"Of course not!" Rukia grabbed her coffee cup and took an extra long sip.

"Well, okay...I mean..."

"Are you sure?" Orihime asked bluntly.

"Orihime, I think I'd remember if I woke up and there was a guy in my bed"

"She's got a point there"

Rukia felt bad about lying. But there was no way in _hell_ she was going to tell Orihime and Tatsuki about what had happened when she woke up. That was something she planned on taking to her grave (she had a while to wait, she knew). "Well, I'd better get going," she stood up, smiling, "I have a lot to do today, you know. Talk to you later!"

"Rukia!" she looked back and saw Tatsuki looking at her, a completely serious look on her face.

"Yes?"

Tatsuki looked at her for another second, then shook her head. "Never-mind. Never-mind"

And Rukia had a very bad feeling that Tatsuki knew she was lying.

* * *

Ichigo didn't see Rukia for the rest of the day. Where she was, he didn't know. He didn't care to know. He didn't _want_ to know. 

What he _did_ want to know, was whether or not something had happened last night. He was laying on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. He closed his eyes. He was tired...a little nap never hurt anyone...did it?

* * *

Rukia sat back against a tree in the park, her knees drawn under chin, her arms wrapped around her knees. It was late. She should probably go back to Ichigo's. 

Maybe when Hell froze over

She closed her eyes and rested her chin on her knees. She was tired...

* * *

"_Well, I s'pose there's no point in hanging around here," Rukia giggled madly._

"_Where do you propose we go?"_

"_Well, there's no one at my house..."_

_Rukia giggled again. "Ichigo!"_

_They stumbled outside and down the street, laughing. What was so funny, neither of them knew. But it was obviously hilarious. At one point Ichigo nearly stumbled into the road. Rukia grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back just a car whizzed by. The driver honked and yelled obscenities at them. "Rot in hell!" Ichigo yelled after the car. Rukia giggled again and pulled him down the street._

"_Come on macho man, we're almost to your house"_

_Somehow Ichigo managed to work the key into the lock, and they got inside without much of a disaster. "Dad's gonna kill me when he finds out I broke that vase," Ichigo muttered._

"_Just clean it up and throw it away, he'll never notice"_

_Before either of them knew what was happening, Ichigo had pushed Rukia against the wall and started kissing her. When he pulled away, she looked up, her eyes wide. "Why Ichigo, I never knew you were so aggressive"_

_He laughed, "You ain't seen nothing yet," they stumbled up into Ichigo's room. As soon as the door was closed, Ichigo looked back at Rukia, who smirked expectantly._

"_Well? Dazzle me," so he did. He pushed her down onto the bed and laid down on top of her. She lifted her head up and start kissing him. "Ichigo..."_

"_Rukia..."_

_She found the bottom of his shirt and started to pull it over his head. He started working her dress off just as she found his pants button. She slipped them off with next to no problem. "I'm not dazzled yet," she teased him, her voice slurring._

"_Well then, lets' fix that," he leaned down to kiss her again. He felt her tongue moving against his lips, and let her in, and at the same time she did the same thing. She grabbed a fist full of his hair and dragged him onto the bed a little more. They moved around so that they were lying next to each other, and broke apart for a second. "Dazzled yet?"_

"_Almost," she leaned in and kissed him, and at the same time her hands played over his boxers, "Lose these"_

_He did. Almost immediately. "Now you," he ordered. She lost no time sliding her underwear down, then kicking it off when she could no longer reach down. She rolled up on top of Ichigo, and began kissing him again._

"_Rukia?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Don't stop"_

"_Not a problem_"

* * *

Ichigo's eyes snapped open, and he bolted up in his bed, breathing hard. No. God no. Oh fuck. This was bad. This was really, really bad. Ichigo looked down at his hands _What've I done?_

* * *

Rukia jerked as her head snapped up from her knees. It was too much to hope that her dream had been just that; a dream. Damn She buried her face in her hands. _What've I done?_

* * *

It was almost midnight when Rukia finally dragged herself back to Ichigo's. She was surprised to see him waiting up in the kitchen. "We need to talk" 

"Yeah," she walked into the kitchen and sat down across from him, "We really do"

He pushed a cup of tea towards her, and she drank deeply. "Do you...remember?" he asked nervously. He didn't want to bring it up if she didn't remember.

She nodded. "I take it you do as well?"

He nodded. For a second they were both silent. Then Rukia said, "But...it wasn't our fault"

"No!" Ichigo grabbed the line like a drowning person would grab a rope, "I mean, we were drunk...the punch was spiked...we had no control over our actions!"

"Exactly!" Rukia's eyes were shining with excitement, "It didn't mean anything! It was just...the punch was spiked!"

"Right!" Ichigo nodded his head vigorously, "The punch was spiked! We had nothing to do with it! We weren't in control of our actions!"

"Absolutely!"

"Definitely!"

They stood up, ready to congratulate each other on figuring out that they weren't to blame. Without warning, Ichigo grabbed Rukia, pulled her into his arms, leaned down, and kissed her. Hell, she didn't fight back. After a second they pulled away and looked at each other. "After effects?"

"Yeah," Ichigo quickly let go, and she stepped away. "I'm going to bed"

"Me too," Rukia turned red, "My bed, I mean. The closet"

"Right"

"Right"

* * *

It can _never_ be because they're in love with each other. It always has to be someone else's fault XD Anyways, this was my first time writing about...doing it...so if it that part isn't all that good...I don't exactly have any references either /blush/ But yeah...anyways, do not, under any circumstances, ask where the idea for this story came from. Otherwise you'll be delving into my oh so very sick mind. Okay, yeah... /points to review button/ you know what to do. Oh, and before anyone ask, this does not, in any way shape or form, relate to my one-shot _Just a Game_. This is a totally different thing. Okay, now you can go on and do whatever (hopefully that involves reviewing though) 


	2. Answering Questions

**Chapter 2 - **Answering Questions

Monday was a relief for Rukia and Ichigo. Well, in a way it was. Sure, they got to school and it was easy to avoid each other. But dealing with the questions of persistent classmates? Well, that was less then fun.

"I'm tell you, nothing happened!" Rukia insisted during lunchtime. She was sitting with Orihime and her friends under their usual tree, trying to convince them that nothing had happened between her and Ichigo. The girls were far from believing her though.

"That's not possible!" Michiru said. The others nodded in agreement.

"Why not?" Rukia asked patiently. She had to be patient; the alternative was losing her temper completely, and that would tip everyone off.

"Well, when you left you were...uh..."

"Kinda close," Chiziru filled in the words.

"Oh that," Rukia's mind worked quickly, "Well, you know, someone spiked the punch, and Ichigo had a lot of it, and I just wanted to make sure he got home okay because he didn't seem to be himself...and it's a good thing I went too, he almost got hit by a car on the way!"

Well, at least that part was true. "Really?" the girls exchanged wide-eyed looks. Rukia could tell they weren't buying any other part of her story though. "But that doesn't explain why you guys were making out in the corner," Michiru said after a second. Everyone nodded in agreement.

_Think fast, think fast... _"We weren't!"_ Yeah, that's absolutely brilliant Rukia_

"Oh yeah," Tatsuki said in a sarcastic voice, "I forgot, there were just so many spiky-orange haired boys and impossibly short black-haired girls with violet eyes there, it was hard to tell one apart from the other"

"Am I really_ that _short?" Tatsuki was incredibly lucky she wasn't Ichigo; otherwise Rukia might have hit her.

"Rukia!"

"Listen," Rukia put on her 'patient' face again, "I swear to you, absolutely nothing happened. Really. If it did, I'd tell you"

"Really?"

"Yes," she smiled, "After all, friends don't keep secrets, right?"

That grounded the persistent girls. They exchanged looks, suddenly guilty. Rukia knew she should have felt bad about pulling out a card like that, but hell, she was tired of being questioned, and tired of telling the same lies over and over. So what was one more small one to get them to leave her alone? After a second of silence they started talking about the party again, but thankfully it was nothing related to Rukia and Ichigo. Happy about this, Rukia was now eager to join in the conversation.

* * *

Up on the roof, Ichigo was being put through the same kind of torture. "Come on!" Keigo whined, "You're telling us absolutely nothing happened?!" 

"_Yes_!" Ichigo said angrily, "Would you just _drop it_ already?"

"I don't believe you," Keigo folded his arms stubbornly.

"Look," Ichigo rounded on his soon-to-be-dead friend, "Thanks to you, ya freakin' idiot, Rukia ended up drunk, and I just wanted to make sure she got home all right. We happen to live down the same way, so it wasn't exactly inconvenient. I got her home, made sure she was okay, and then went home myself. _That's all._ And if you bring up the damn story again, you're going to get flying lessons the hard way. Got it?"

Keigo nodded, now scared, and scrambled away from Ichigo, so that he was sitting next to Mizuiro. The two started talking about the party again. "What's he talking about anyway?" Ichigo looked over at Uryu and Chad, who had both been sitting by silently. Neither of them had gone to the party.

"Oh, stupid moron over there," Ichigo jerked his thumb at Keigo, "spiked the punch. So you know, kids ended up drunk, they thought they saw things they really didn't..."

"Like what?"

"Oh uh..." Ichigo ran his hand through his hair, "Uh...they thought they saw Rukia and I kissing"

Even Chad looked shocked. "We weren't!" Ichigo added quickly, "We weren't, really! It's like I told Keigo, Rukia ended up drunk thanks to him, so I wanted to make sure she got home okay. But you know, people saw us leave together, they started talking. Nothing happened though, really. I mean, for one thing Rukia's my friend. For another," he looked over at Keigo and Mizuiro to make sure they weren't paying attention. They weren't. Ichigo lowered his voice anyway, "I seriously doubt the Soul Society would be okay with something like that. And Rukia's not stupid, she wouldn't put her life in danger. Again"

It was easy to convince Chad and Uryu nothing had happened. Of course, Ichigo could use certain things to his advantage with them that he couldn't with anyone else; both of them knew all about the Soul Society and Rukia, and it made life so much easier at times like this. "I think the best part was when Aiko started stripping"

"Yeah, does anyone know how much of the punch she had?"

"When the hell did that happen?" Ichigo asked, despite himself.

"Oh, right before you and Rukia left, when you were the corner-"

"Keigo?"

"Yeah?"

"How much punch did you have?"

"None," Ichigo's blood ran cold, "My sister would have murdered me if I showed up at home drunk"

* * *

Ichigo cornered Rukia after school. He knew damn well it was going to look bad, but he didn't care. "What else do you remember from the party?" he asked as soon as he grabbed her. 

"Wha-oh, jeez Ichigo, don't do that"

"Just tell me what you remember!"

"Someone's in a bad mood," she commented, pulling her arm out of his grip, "I remember going with you and Orihime...and I remember drinking the punch..."

"That's not much"

"Well what do you remember?"

"Not much"

They both sighed. "So, together again?" a sly voice said from behind Ichigo. They both jumped and looked around. Mizuiro, Keigo, Tatsuki, and Orihime were watching them, all with knowing smiles. Ichigo and Rukia exchanged glances, and realized just how close to each other they really were. They both jerked away at once.

"Keigo, rot in hell," Ichigo muttered as he tried to come up with excuses.

"What, it's not my fault if the two of you have the hots for each other," Keigo laughed, "Come on, why don't you just kiss already, you had no problem doing it at the party-"

Before Ichigo could do anything, Rukia flung her schoolbag as hard as she could at Keigo. It nailed him right in the face. Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and Orihime all gasped. Even Ichigo was shocked. Sure, Rukia had a temper, but she always kept in check at school. Well, around other people, anyway. And she'd certainly never hit anyone besides Ichigo. It'd been a long day though, and Ichigo knew it; he knew, without knowing how he knew, that she'd endured the same torrent of questions he had, and he knew there was only so much a person could take before they snapped.

Mizuiro leaned over Keigo, his eyes wide. "Er...Keigo? Are you okay?"

Tatsuki laughed appreciatively, "Well, looks like Rukia has a tough side after all"

Ichigo looked back at Rukia, and saw that she was focusing intently on the ground. He decided not to try and talk to her. She lived in his closet, after all, she could do things to him when he was sleeping. Without looking at any of them she walked away, stopping long enough to stoop down and grab her bag. "Ow..." Keigo muttered as he sat up, "Did she really just whip her bag at me?"

"No, you imagined it," Ichigo muttered sarcastically, "See what you get for pushing your luck?"

"Dude, never knew that chick was so aggressive"

Ichigo shook his head, sighing, "Well, if you morons are done jumping to conclusions, I'm going home. I have homework. I'm sure you guys have heard of it," he walked away without another word. He was aggravated, he was tired, and now he was a little weary of talking to Rukia. If she was actually willing to hit one of her classmates, he shuddered to think what she'd do to him.

* * *

Rukia didn't go back to Ichigo's. She wasn't in the mood to talk to her orange-haired friend, and she knew he was going to want to talk the second they saw each other. So instead she just wandered downtown. 

She felt truly bad about what she did to Keigo. But after spending the day answering to, "So did you and Kurosaki do it?" Keigo's comments had been the absolute last straw. Still, she felt bad. She was going to have to figure out a way to make up for it. And while she was at it, maybe she'd figure out a way to make this whole mess go away.

She needed to figure out a way to make people stop asking about her and Ichigo. Even though she'd said five hundred different times, "Ichigo and I are just friends, nothing happened," she knew those answers wouldn't satisfy people for long. Especially not when Keigo and Mizuiro got word out that they'd found Ichigo and Rukia together after school. Of course, after what Rukia had done, the two boys might just take that secret to the grave. But she couldn't take that chance.

_You know, I don't know what the big deal_, a voice in th back of Rukia's head piped up, _I mean, it's not __like__ you don't__** like**__ Ichigo, so what's the big deal?_

_Shut up,_ another voice snapped, _Ichigo can never be with her, you know that_

_Great, _Rukia sighed, _Now I have voices bickering in my head. This day just couldn't get any worse_

Then she realized what the first voice had said. _Wait a second! Who said I liked Ichigo?_

_Please, like we don't all know it_, the first voice sounded happy, _Even Keigo and Mizuiro see it. Hell, even __**Renji**__ sees it_

What the hell. Rukia shook her head. She was talking to voices in her head. She really _was_ losing it. _Hey_, the second voice broke in, _were you listening to what I said before? So what if she likes Ichigo? She can't have him!_

_And why not?_ The first voice challenged.

_The Soul Society would never allow it_

_Who says the Soul Society has to know?_

_They'll find out. They have their ways_

_Well you don't have to be so pessimistic about it_

_I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being-_

Rukia lost her patience. "Oh shut up!"

"Eh...Rukia?" her eyes widened as she looked around and found herself facing a very confused looking Orihime and Tatsuki.

"Oh hi!" Rukia quickly slipped back into her "innocent-school-girl" voice.

"Um...hi," Orihime said tentatively, "Are you...okay?"

"Yeah, never better," Rukia quickly smiled, "Oh, is Keigo okay? I didn't mean to do that to him, sometimes I just don't think before I act..."

"Keigo's fine," Tatsuki said simply, "That's not who we're here to talk about though"

"Oh really?" she tried to look curious, even though she had a feeling she knew what they wanted to talk about, "Then who?"

"You," bulls-eye

"I'm not really all that interesting"

"Rukia-"

"Listen," she cut Tatsuki off, "I'd love to stick around, but I really have to get home, my mom's going to start worrying. We'll talk later, okay? Bye!"

She took off without another word

* * *

Orihime and Tatsuki exchanged looks. "I thought we were going to tell her we know she was lying before?" Orihime asked finally. 

"We were," Tatsuki shook her head, "Ichigo and Rukia are two very stubborn people, aren't they?"

"Sure are," Orihime nodded, "It's so obvious they like each other, and yet they just can't admit it"

"And after what might have happened Friday night..."

"That's it!" Orihime snapped her fingers, "It's time to take this into our own hands!"

"And by our own hands you mean..."

"We're going to get Ichigo and Rukia together ourselves!"

* * *

So now Orihime and Tatsuki are matchmakers. This oughta be interesting. Anyways, I know I said before this was a one-shot, but I got a lot of positive feedback on it, and people kept saying I should keep going...so, being the softy that I am, I typed another chapter. I'm going to see how well this chapter goes over, and if people like it enough, then I'll keep going. Anyways, let me know what you think. Oh, and for the record, I know Orihime has a crush on Ichigo herself, but considering I don't really care for the pairing Orihime/Ichigo, I figured why bother even putting it in - Sam 


	3. Another Awkward Moment

**Dislcaimer**: Yeah, right, I own Bleach. That'll happen when hell freezes over...

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3 -** Another Awkward Moment

"Okay," Tatsuki sipped at her soda. She and Orihime had gone to a nearby coffee shop to start their plotting. "Lets' start with what we already know. So. What do we know about Ichigo?"

Orihime leaned back in her seat, thinking. "Well, lets' see. His name is Ichigo Kurosaki, he's fifteen, he has orange hair and amber eyes, and-"

"I meant more along the lines of personality and relationships"

"Oh," Orihime rested her elbows on the table, "Okay. Well, he seems mad most of the time, but he has an okay personality, I guess. It's way too easy to worry him, especially when it comes to his family. Relationship status, uh...has he ever had a girlfriend?"

"Not to my knowledge, no," Tatsuki shrugged, "Okay. Next. What do we know about Rukia?"

"Well, her name's Rukia Kuchiki, she's, uh..." the reality was she was about a hundred and twenty, give or take a year, but Orihime couldn't tell Tatsuki that. "She's about fifteen, she has violet eyes and-"

"Orihime?"

"Yeah, I know, I know," Orihime giggled, "Okay, lets' see, she's smart, she's nice, she really likes hanging around with her friends, and, um...I don't think she's ever had a boyfriend. I know Keigo has a crush on her, and shew as telling me once about this boy she used to know named Renji, and he had a kind of crush on her...A lot of people like Rukia, huh?"

"Apparently," Tatsuki made a face and played with her straw, "All right, lets' start thinking of ways to actually get Ichigo and Rukia together. We should start with similarities between them. Hmn...I actually don't think there are any. I mean, Rukia always seems really happy, and Ichigo always seems really...mad"

Again, Orihime bit her tongue on the truth, which was that Rukia's happiness was just an act. "But on the other hand," Tatsuki was talking again, "After today, I'd say Rukia has a very short temper. I mean, did you see the way she nailed Keigo with her bag?" Tatsuki laughed as she slammed her right fist into the palm of her left hand, "_Wham_! She also has a good arm"

"I don't think Ichigo cares too much about her athletic skills," Orihime sighed as she took a sip of her soda, "But what does he want in a girl?"

"Well, she'd probably have to be patient, you know, to put up with him-"

"Well after today, I'd say Rukia is out on that count"

"Nah, Keigo was just bugging her. I doubt she'd ever actually, you know, hurt someone for no reason," Tatsuki shrugged, "Especially Ichigo"

* * *

"Ow!" Ichigo yelped and yanked the earphones out of his ears, "What the hell was that for?!" 

Rukia, who was laying on his bed reading a book, glared over at him. He had been sitting at his desk listening to music. Then she'd kicked him in the back of the head. "The music's too loud; I can't concentrate"

"That's a sucky excuse"

"It's the best one you're gonna get," she went back to her book. Ichigo, fuming, shoved the earphones back into his ears, turned down the music (okay, so it _was_ up kind of loud), and slid down in his seat, hoping Rukia wouldn't take advantage of this and kick him again. She seemed to have forgotten he was there though; she'd gone back to her book. Ichigo twisted his head and looked over at her. She really _did _look beautiful just laying there...

Ichigo shook his head and mentally slapped himself. There had to be something wrong with him. "What are you looking at?" he looked up and saw that Rukia was looking at him over her book. Luckily, he was spared coming up with an excuse by Yuzu yelling, "Ichigo! Dinner!"

Ichigo jumped up and started for the door. "You want anything?"

"No thanks," he walked out and closed the door behind him. He was pretty sure she wouldn't be there when he got back. She had a habit of disappearing around supper time.

* * *

Rukia sighed and threw her book aside as Ichigo closed the door and went down to the kitchen. If he had any decent observatory skills (or any at all for that matter), the dope might have noticed that she hadn't turned a page in the last half hour. She'd been too busy thinking about other things., Ichigo himself being the most pronounced. 

Rukia had heard two things over and over all day. One, of course, was the question about whether or not anything happened between her and Ichigo. The other was people _loudly_ proclaiming that they never knew she liked him, to which, of course, she would always respond, "I don't!"

And she didn't. Really she didn't. Right? For one thing, they were too different. That was why they always argued with each other. Two people who argued could never be together. They'd kill each other.

And for another thing, he was human. Part Soul Reaper, sure, but still a human. The Soul Society would never allow a human (or a human that was part Soul Reaper) and a Soul Reaper to be together. So even if, by some miracle, Ichigo and Rukia did have feelings for each other (which would never happen anyway), they wouldn't be able to ever be together. It just wasn't happening. Not that it mattered. She didn't like Ichigo. Not like that.

Rukia sighed and pushed herself off the bed. She needed to go out for a walk. She was going crazy just sitting around. She jumped out the window and started down the street. _Wow, deja vu_, she thought, smiling slightly at the thought. This was the exact same thing she'd done Saturday morning after...the little accident with Ichigo.

That was what she had started calling it. "The Accident". Because that's all it was. It hadn't meant anything. It hadn't been meant to mean anything. And like hell Rukia was going to _let _it mean anything.

She kicked at the ground, sighing, as she passed the coffee shop. She looked in and saw Orihime and Tatsuki sitting at a table across from each other, in deep discussion about...something. Whatever it was, it had to interesting, because neither girl saw Rukia walk in, not even Orihime, and she was facing the door. Curious to know what could hold the interest of Orihime, the girl with an intention span of five seconds, Rukia crept up a little closer to their table and sat down at the one behind it with her back to them. "Okay, so we've figured out they have a few small things in common," Tatsuki was saying, "But really, we've got nothing. Maybe the idea _is_ shot Orihime"

"We can make it work," Orihime said stubbornly, "Come on, don't give up on it before we even start Tatsuki! Lets' start working out ways to actually get them alone together"

"How are we going to do that?"

"Oh, you know, ask them if they want to hang out with the two of us then cancel, or maybe-"

Rukia, confused beyond belief at this point, stood up and turned around, "Hi Orihime, hi Tatsuki!"

Both girls jumped and looked over at her, "Oh! Hi Rukia!" Orihime sounded surprised (and scared? Rukia couldn't tell, but there was definitely something mixed into her tone). "What are you doing?"

"Not much, just walking around"

"Do you have a home?" Tatsuki asked, leaning back in her seat, "I mean, you always seem to be walking around"

Rukia kicked at the floor, "Yeah. I'm not much for being cooped up inside though"

"School must be hell"

"More or less," Rukia was dying to ask, "So who were you talking about when I came in?"

Both girls paled. "T-Talking?"

"Yeah, you know, I came in, you were talking about...?"

"Oh that!" Orihime snapped her fingers as if she'd just remembered something, "Right, right, we were talking about...uh...we were talking about..."

"Well would you look at the time!" Tatsuki jumped up and grabbed Orihime, "Orihime you're coming over for supper right? We'd better get going, Mom hates it when I'm late, see you later Rukia!"

The two darted out, and Rukia suddenly had a bad feeling she knew who the "them" that Orihime had been talking about was.

* * *

Ichigo finished his dinner and went back to his room. Predictably enough, Rukia wasn't there. "How did I know she'd do this?" Ichigo rolled his eyes, "She's like clockwork, I can tell every move she's going to make before _she_ even knows she's going to do it" 

Ichigo shook his head as he pulled out his homework, sat at his desk, and started working. His mind wasn't on the homework though. It was on the oh-too-predictable midget Soul Reaper.

All he had heard all day was, "So did you score off of Kuchiki?" that in itself was enough to make him lose his lunch. What made it even worse was that he almost felt bad when he said no. Not because it was a lie; no, he'd decided that the dream he and Rukia had both had was just that; a dream. No, what made him feel bad was that part of him was almost wishing it was true and that he could really admit it.

And that was when he'd yell at himself in his head that he was losing his mind. Him and Rukia? Never gonna happen. For one thing, they _didn't_ like each other. That was a laughable thought, really. Rukia didn't like _him_, for one thing. And for another...the thought kind of scared Ichigo. Whenever someone asked about what had happened between him and Rukia, Ichigo's first thought was to run. And not stop. He wanted to run until he had escaped all the questions, and escaped all the wondering stares of his classmates. And more importantly, he wanted to run until he had escaped Rukia. Because the thought of the two of them being together scared Ichigo as much as it made him laugh his ass off.

Ichigo threw his pencil down. Homework? Yeah right. That was definitely not going to happen. Instead he went to go take a shower. He needed one. More specifically, he needed a cold one.

He let the ice cold water run over his head for five minutes before switching it to hot so he could thaw out. He scrubbed as hard as he could at his skin, until deep red splotches appeared. He wanted to wipe away every thought he'd been thinking throughout the day. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as taking a shower. When he got out and dried up he realized something: he'd forgotten his clothes in his room. "Damn!" he swore quietly and wrapped a towel around his body, slipping out of the bathroom and into his room. It was dark now. Still gripping the towel tightly, he started to look around for his pajamas. What the hell had he done with them? He bent down to look under his bed, and the towel slipped.

As he straightened up, he heard someone cough. And his heart stopped beating

* * *

Rukia sighed as the sun set. Her head was no clearer than when she had started the walk. And it was late. Ichigo was going to wonder where she was. So she dragged her sorry self back to Ichigo's. She hadn't realized how far away she'd wandered. By the time she got back, it was dark. Ichigo's room was dark and quiet. He was probably still downstairs with his family. Resigned, Rukia hoisted herself into his window. And was met with a most peculiar sight. 

Ichigo was on the floor looking under his bed, a towel wrapped around his bare body. As he shifted, the towel slipped. Rukia's eyes widened. She shouldn't watch this, she really shouldn't watch this...

She coughed. Ichigo jumped and looked up. And Rukia was suddenly very happy that there was a bed between the two of them. And Ichigo was still kneeling on the floor."Uh...hi," he said after a second of extremely awkward silence.

"Um...did you lose something?" she asked, shifting her weight between her feet.

"Oh, I was just, you know," he motioned his hands wildly, "Looking for my uh...pajamas"

"Oh," she pointed to his bureau, "They're over there"

He turned beet red. "Well. What do you know. Uh...do you mind?"

She turned to look out the window until he said it was okay. She was relieved to find him fully clothed when she looked back. "So, where'd you go?"

"Oh, just for a walk, you know," she tried to sound casual, even though this was probably the second most awkward moment she'd ever been through (because absolutely_ nothing _could beat waking up in bed with Ichigo). "I was trying to clear my head"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he ran a hand through his orange hair, "Today was crazy, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," she grabbed the line, "Yeah, all those people, thought they saw crazy things..."

"Pretty insane," Ichigo managed a laugh. Rukia sighed as she kicked at the floor. She knew what she had to do.

"Ichigo?"

"What's up?"

"About, uh...Friday night, Saturday morning, and whatever happened in between," she finally managed to look up at him, "It never happened. Right?"

"It never..." he looked confused, "What do you mean it never happened? I mean, sure, it never happened. I can deal with that. But...why?"

"Because if the Soul Society ever found out, it could be trouble," he nodded like he had expected that. And maybe he had. "I'd be taken away from here. No questions. And, well...it never happened. Understand? Even if something did happen...it couldn't happen. It _can't_ happen"

He nodded. "Right. I understand. It never happened," his usual scowl never left his face. She didn't know how he felt. But she knew at the moment _she_ felt absolutely terrible.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Rukia just basically set up the rest of the story for me. Anyways, still very happy with the feedback I received on the first and second chapters, I don't expect as much out of this one because it wasn't as good, but still, a few reviews would be nice _/pokes reader/_ Anyways, don't you just love totally awkward situations? That part at the end came out of basically nowhere, I originally planned on ending it with Rukia at the coffee shop wondering what Orihime and Tatsuki were going on about, but brilliance struck...but hey, let me know what you think. And if you have any ideas, feel free to throw those into a review as well. Anyways, you know what to do from here!_ /points to review button/_ I'd like this chapter to bring me up to fifty reviews. That's only five more reviews (though I wouldn't say no to a _few_ more than that). 

-Sam


	4. New Kids, New Feelings

**Disclaimer: **Now Come on...you think I own Bleach?

**Author's Note **(to everyone who said Orihime was kind of OOC)I know she has a crush on Ichigo, but as I said before, mostly because I don't support the pairing, I don't plan on including it. At all

* * *

**Chapter 4** – New Kids, New Feelings 

It should have been easy. Pretending nothing had happened? Not a sweat. After all, he had been doing just that since Saturday morning. Yeah. No problem. Pretending nothing had happened should have been a piece of cake.

But of course, nothing was ever easy in Ichigo's life, and the simple act of forgetting something like waking up in bed with Rukia proved to be harder than he'd ever imagined. And Keigo sure as hell wasn't making it any better.

"Come on man, just say it; you like Rukia Kuchiki!"

"Keigo, do you want another bag whipped at you?" Ichigo growled, shoving his hands into his pockets, "'Cause if you don't I'd advice that you shut up"

Keigo frowned. "Fine. If you _don't _like her, then you won't mind me asking her out, will you?"

"Like she'd ever say yes," Mizuiro shook his head, obviously saddened by the way his two friends were acting.

"Well let's find out!" Keigo declared as the bell rang.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Gonna go down and ask her right now?"

They started down off the roof to class. "So what if I am?"

"That's something I'd pay quite a bit of money to see," Rukia would _never_ say yes to Keigo. That was a completely laughable thought.

"Well cough up the money, 'cause you're about to get a front row seat," they walked into class, and Ichigo saw that Rukia was already there, chatting with Orihime and Tatsuki. "Hey, Rukia!" Keigo instantly went over to her.

Rukia gave the boy a weary look, but her voice never wavered. "Hi Keigo"

"Ah, Rukia, I was just wondering if-ow!" Keigo yelped as Ichigo slapped him over the head, "What was that for?!"

"Trying to save you from making a total fool of yourself," Ichigo rolled his eyes again.

"Yeah right," Keigo huffed and folded his arms, annoyed, "That's not it, you just don't want me to ask her out because _you_ like her!"

"For the last time, I do _not_ like her!" Ichigo exploded, "And if one more person says that they're going to find my fist in their face!"

Orihime and Tatsuki exchanged looks. Rukia's face never changed, but Ichigo could have sworn he saw a flicker of hurt in her eyes. But maybe it was just his imagination. After all, _she_ had been the one who said they needed to forget everything that might have (or might not have) happened. So why would she care if he had feelings for her not?

Ichigo threw himself into his seat. Keigo didn't talk to him for the rest of the day (which was actually an improvement). Rukia didn't look his way again, and when school was over she took off before anyone could stop her. Ichigo ran an aggravated hand through his hair. What the hell was her problem?

* * *

"_For the last time, I do not like her!"_ – Ichigo's words rang through Rukia's head as she started down the street. She felt...betrayed, in a sense. Though she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. Who cared what Ichigo thought? And hadn't she _just_ said last night that, no matter what, they couldn't have feelings for each other? He had seemed a little too happy to agree to that...at least now she knew why. Well, that cleared everything up, didn't it? 

"Oof!" not paying attention turned out to be a very bad thing when Rukia crashed into someone. She hit the ground, twisting her ankle as she did so. "Ow..." she muttered, rubbing her ankle cautiously.

"Aw man, I'm sorry," a male voice said, "You okay?"

Rukia looked up, "Yeah, I..." she blinked. There was a boy, about fifteen, standing over her. He had pale blond hair and blue-gray eyes. And he was tall. About as tall as Ichigo. Rukia, realizing she was staring, quickly cleared her throat. "Er...yeah, I'm fine"

"Sorry," the boy apologized again, bending down and helping her stand.

"It's my fault," she assured him as she carefully balanced on her ankle. It twinged a little, but other than that she was okay. "I wasn't paying attention"

"You're too kind," the boy smiled, "Oh, by the way, I'm Yukio Ryuichi"

"Rukia Kuchiki," she held out her hand, and Yukio shook, still smiling. "Are you...new?"

"Yeah," he shoved his hands into his pockets, "Just moved here today. Starting school tomorrow"

"Where are you going?"

"Karakura High"

"That's where I go"

"Well then, guess it's my lucky day," Yukio smiled, "Well look, I have to get going. See you around, Rukia"

"Bye," he walked away. Rukia shook her head, trying to clear the fog that had filled her brain.

"Rukia!" she looked around and saw Orihime and Tatsuki walking towards her. "Who was that?" Orihime asked curiously, looking over her shoulder at Yukio.

"Oh, uh, new kid," Rukia rubbed her head, "Kind of bumped into him by accident"

"Oh," Orihime frowned, "Is he going to our school?"

"Yeah," Rukia caught the underlying tone in Orihime's voice, "Why?"

"No reason," she shook her head. Rukia bent down and grabbed her bag, confused. Exactly _why_ would Orihime care about something like that?

* * *

"You know, considering you left before me, I figured you'd be home first," Ichigo looked around as Rukia slipped into his room through the window. 

"I was held up doing something," she shot back, "And anyways, why do you care?"

"I dunno, thought maybe something happened to you"

"And again, why do you care?"

That aggravated Ichigo. "Well for some odd reason I consider you a friend, and I worry about my friends. I must have been mistaken about you though"

She held her glare for another second before looking away. "Problem?" he asked, standing up. He'd been sitting at his desk attempting to do homework.

"Nope," was all she said before walking over to the closet. She threw her bag in and pulled herself up so that she could sit. Her legs dangled off the edge.

"So what were you doing that made you late?" he finally asked, getting annoyed with the silence.

"Why, you clocking my movements now?" Ichigo was ready to snap. What the hell was with her?

"Nope"

"Then don't ask," Ichigo resisted the urge to strangle her.

"Fine. Fine. I don't care," he waved his hand carelessly and started to walk out, "Do whatever you want, no skin off me"

As he walked out he could have sworn he heard mutter, "Sorry," but again, it might have just been his imagination.

* * *

Rukia left the next morning before Ichigo even woke up. Said orange-haired teen was now grumbling as he pulled on his school uniform. He'd spent ten minutes trying to wake her up, only to yank open the closet door and find out – _hello_ – she wasn't even there. 

Now_ that _was aggravating

Ichigo darted out of the house, just missing being attacked by his dad, and started down the street, munching on a piece of toast he'd snagged from Yuzu before leaving. For some odd reason, his mind was focused completely on Rukia. He just could not for the life of him figure out why she was acting so weird towards him. Was it because of what he said yesterday? No way. Just because he had announced, rather loudly, to the entire class that he didn't have feelings for her, that wouldn't make her mad. It was probably the exact same thing _she_ would have done. Thinking that made Ichigo feel a little better. Not much, but enough. He was actually in a good mood when he walked into class. Not that it lasted long.

He looked around as soon as he entered, and saw Rukia. Sitting at her desk. Talking to another person. Who just happened to be a boy. Ichigo blinked. What the hell? "He's new," Ichigo looked around and saw Uryu was standing behind him, "Do you mind moving? I'd like to sit down"

Ichigo grumbled as he stepped out of the way. "Who is he?"

Uryu just shrugged, his back to Ichigo now. Ichigo huffed, annoyed. He'd settle this once and for all. "Hey, Rukia," he walked over to her desk, "Mind introducing me to your friend?"

The boy looked around at Ichigo. "My name's Yukio Ryuichi," he held out his hand, and Ichigo took it.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," he said in a flat voice, "How do you know Rukia?"

"Oh, we kind of uh...bumped into each other yesterday," Yukio laughed and rubbed his head, embarrassed.

"Oh really?" Ichigo gave Rukia a look, but she was determinedly looking anywhere but at him. "So you're new huh?"

"Yeah"

"Well, that sucks"

"Not really, I'm used to it"

"Move a lot?"

"Yeah"

If it had been a week earlier, this conversation would have topped all of Ichigo's past awkward situations. But after the past two events with Rukia...the conversation was almost comfortable.

Nobody said anything for a second, and finally Yukio looked back at Rukia and said, "So...think about it, all right? I'd really like to get to know you better"

"I will," Rukia smiled as Yukio walked to the back of the room and sat down.

"Think about _what_?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.

"You really that interested?"

"Just answer the damn question"

"You'd better be careful, Ichigo," Rukia smirked as she opened a book and started reading, "Someone might actually think you're...jealous"

* * *

"_You know, Rukia, you seem like an interesting person"_

_"There isn't anything interesting about me, really"_

_"Well I think so. And I think I'd like to get to know more about what makes you so interesting"_

The conversation played in Rukia's head for the rest of the day. Humans still kind of confused her, even after all the time she'd spent on Earth. But she knew when she was being asked out. And Yukio had definitely asked her out. Now the question was, how did she say no without hurting him? It wasn't like I it had been with Ichigo, she couldn't tell Yukio that she couldn't go out with him because she was from another dimension that would never allow it. Plus, Rukia still had her status to think about; adopted or not, she was a Kuchiki. True, she'd already disgraced the family name so many times, one more offense probably wouldn't matter. But could Rukia really take that chance? And even if she was willing to, there was still that outlying reason; the Soul Society would never allow it. And if Rukia was going to break the rules for anyone, it wouldn't be for a person she barely knew.

_Why not?_ A voice in her head nagged her, _That's what you did when you gave Ichigo your powers_

_That was different,_ she insisted, _It was a matter of life or death_

_And this is a matter of just going out for coffee_, the voice shot back, _Just give Yukio a chance, I'm sure you won't be sorry_

Good grief, Rukia shook her head. She was talking to voices again. There was definitely something wrong with her. "Hey, Rukia!" she jumped as Michiru tapped her lightly on the head, "You in there? 'Cause I've asked you the same question about ten times, and I don't think you heard me once"

"Sorry," Rukia apologized, putting on a smile, "What was the question?"

"I said, did that new kid, Yukio, really ask you out?"

"Well...yeah"

Everyone exchanged a look. "And?" Chiziru asked, looking intrigued. Rukia wondered why, then remembered that they all thought she liked Ichigo. This was her perfect chance to put an end to all those rumors once and for all.

"Well...I think I might just accept"

* * *

**Author's Note: **I had a total brain-freeze as to what to do. Then I figured, "Well, if Rukia's really going to try and forget what happened with Ichigo, and try and make him not like her, then she's going to want to try and make it look like she doesn't like him...right?" And thus, Yukio was born. And before you ask, yes, the entire scheme _will_ blow up in Rukia's face. There's a special reasoning behind why I chose the name Yukio. It means, "He who gets what he wants". See if you can figure out my plan from there /evil grin/ Anyways, I was very happy that I got (and went over) fifty reviews, so try and make my next dream come true. I'm at sixty-teightt now, by the time I update I'd like to have anywhere between seventy and eighty, and maybe more if people really enjoyed it. So can you make that happen /points to review button/ You'll get a cookie if you do! – Sam PS- Last update for awhile, I'm going on vacation. See ya soon! 


	5. First Dates and Jealousy

**Chapter 5** – First Date and Jealousy

"She what?!" Keigo yelled, "She's going out with him!"

"Why exactly are you telling us this?" Ichigo asked boredly. Tatsuki and Orihime exchanged glances.

"Because we figured you'd wanna know"

"Actually I could really care less," the orange-haired teen shrugged. He had to admit, the idea of Rukia going out with the new kid, even if it _was_ just for coffee, aggravated him to no end. But at least he was taking it better than Keigo, who'd actually started _crying_.

"Man, I was gonna ask her out," he groaned over and over. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"I'm outta here," he gave the three a wave and started walking away. School was over, and he didn't feel like hanging around. Especially not with Keigo, who was practically in mourning. _It's just coffee_, Ichigo reasoned as he started down the street. Still, when he caught sight of a certain midget walking just ahead of him, he felt compelled to ask. "'Ey, Rukia!" he jogged to catch up to her. She looked around, her violet eyes devoid of all emotion.

"What?"

"Tatsuki and Orihime told me you were going out with that kid, Yukio"

"I said I _might_"

"What happened to 'the Soul Society won't allow it'?"

"What happened to 'I don't care, do whatever you want'?" ouch. Ichigo recalled _those _words well.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said that..."

"Does it matter?" Rukia turned and started walking away, "Sorry, I have to get going"

"What do you see in him anyways?" he called after her. Her back was to him now.

"Ichigo, do you realize how pathetically jealous you sound right now?"

"I'm not jealous, just curious"

"Coulda fooled me"

"Just answer the question"

"What do I see in him?" she repeated, "I dunno...maybe it's just the fact that he's not _you_"

_Ouch_. Now _that_ hurt. He didn't say another word as she walked away

* * *

Rukia bit her lip as she walked. She felt bad about what she had said to Ichigo. _That_ had been just on the side of harsh. But she had to. She had to make it seem like she had no interest in him. At all. Just so he wouldn't develop feelings for her. She couldn't allow that. As Ichigo had said, recalling her own words, the Soul Society would never allow a Soul Reaper and a human to be together. Especially not a human like Ichigo, one with high spirit energy. 

So she had to distance herself from him. Try and bury her feelings. And to do that, she needed...

"Yukio!" she found him as soon as she walked into the coffee shop. He was sitting at a table in back, staring into his cup. He looked up when he heard his name, and his eyes lit up.

"Hey Rukia!" he smiled as she sat down, "I'm glad you came. Want anything?"

"No thanks," she gave him a smile. He really _was_ nice. She felt bad, knowing she was just using him. "So what do you think of Karakura?" she asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"It's a _lot_ smaller than the last place I lived," he said thoughtfully, "But I like smaller better. It's easier to get to know everything"

"I take it you've moved before?"

"Like I said earlier, I move a lot," he shrugged, "My dad's company, ya know. Transfers him a lot. But hey, enough about me. I asked you out because I wanted to get to know _you_ better"

So he had been asking her out earlier. She knew it. "Oh, there's really nothing interesting about me," she assured him, giggling. Inside she grimaced. She hated putting on this girly act.

"Oh I bet there is," Yukio said teasingly, "I've met all kinds of people, I can tell when there's something different about a person. And there's definitely something different about you"

Rukia ended up lying. A lot. She said she lived on her own, that her parents really didn't care as long as she kept her grades up, and she could do whatever she wanted, more or less. She could tell Yukio wasn't really buying the story, but he didn't push, for which she was grateful. As Ichigo always said, she sucked at keeping her stories straight. "So, why don't you tell me a little bit about you?" she said finally, running out of lies. Yukio's story was about as interesting as her own. His mom had died when he was little, and his dad, a workaholic, clocked a lot of hours at the office, so Yukio might as well have lived alone. He did all his own laundry, his own meals, kept the house clean...basically he did everything his mother would have done. "That's a lot of responsibility for one kid," Rukia said after he was done.

"I'm used to it," he shrugged and finished up his coffee, "Man, look at the time, can you believe we've been here almost three hours?"

Rukia blinked. As a matter of fact no, she couldn't believe it. And what she also couldn't believe was that in the past three hours, she hadn't thought about Ichigo. Not even once.

* * *

Ichigo looked out his window as the sun started to set. Rukia still wasn't back. Not that he cared. Why should he? She obviously didn't care about _him_. 

"_Maybe it's just the fact that he's not _you_"_ – Bitch. Who the hell did she think she was, anyway? Man, he really was delusional, thinking they were friends. Just what was her problem? Why was she all of a sudden acting like she was _better_ than him? It was all around fairly infuriating. He deserved a few answers, but getting answers from that short little nightmare would be about as easy as trying to stop the sun from shining. But that didn't stop him.

"What the hell is your problem?" Ichigo slammed Rukia as soon as she climbed up through his window.

"Excuse me?"

"What's wrong, got cotton in your ears?" he pushed himself off the bed, "I said, 'what the hell is your problem?'"

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"I mean what's with your sudden 'better-than-thou' act?"

"I don't think I'm better than anyone"

"Coulda fooled me!"

"Ichigo?"

"What?"

"Did you ever stop to think maybe _you're_ the one with the problem?" she smirked as his mouth opened and closed several times. How had she done that? She'd just turned it all on him. "Is anyone else home?" he shook his head, still unsure of what to say. "Good," she grabbed her pajamas from the closet, "I'm going to take a shower"

And she left, leaving Ichigo dumbfounded in her wake. As soon as he heard the shower start, he kicked his desk. Hard. What the hell had just happened?

* * *

Rukia let the water pour over her body after she finished cleaning up. It was burning hot, but she didn't mind. It made her feel good, for some odd reason. Okay, it actually hurt like hell. But the pain felt good. It told Rukia that she wasn't completely devoid of any feeling. And after what had happened with Ichigo, to know that one, small fact was good.

Rukia had never known she was _capable_ of being_ that_ cold. Sure, she and Ichigo spit out insults at each other like they breathed, but she'd never said such mean things to him, or anyone else. And she had _certainly_ never completely turned around a situation like that. Part of her was saying oh well, it was his fault for announcing to the entire class (and, given how loud he had spoken, probably half the school) that he didn't like her. Not that Rukia doubted whether or not it was true. She knew it was. But this was just her way of jerking his chain and getting revenge

_And what Yukio? _That damn voice in the back of her head spoke up,_ He's going to get hurt, isn't he?_

_Does it matter? _Rukia asked the voice.

As a matter of fact it does, the voice shot back, _he's a good person, and obviously he likes you. How can you just jerk him around like that? Don't you have any feelings?_

_It's just a crush, it's not like it means anything. He'll get over it_

_Oh you think so, do you? This is going to come back and bite you in the ass_

The hot water finally ran out. Rukia climbed out and dried herself off. Her skin was now beet red. And the funny thing was, while she could feel the heat rising off her skin, it didn't hurt anymore.

* * *

"Mmm, thanks for bringing supper over Tatsuki!" Orihime grinned as she finished up the soup Tatsuki had brought her.

"No problem, it's gotta be more healthy than what you normally eat," Tatsuki teased, giving her friend a playful push.

"What's wrong with apple-spice bread and bean paste?!"

Tatsuki decided she'd rather not know. "Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing"

Orihime played with her spoon, a thoughtful look on her face. "What's wrong?" Tatsuki finally asked, "Something on your mind?"

"Ichigo," of course. Tatsuki rolled her eyes. She should have known. "He didn't seem exactly upset, did he? When he found out Rukia was going out with that boy?"

"No, he didn't," Tatsuki admitted, "Who knows, maybe we were wrong about those two"

"That's just it, I don't think we were," Orihime looked up, her eyes shining with sadness, "Neither of them want to admit it though"

"You think she's going out with this kid just to make everyone think she doesn't like Ichigo?" Tatsuki shook her head, "I dunno, that doesn't sound like Rukia to me"

"It's the only thing I can think of," Orihime said, "It's the only reason. But that doesn't explain why Ichigo wouldn't be mad..."

"Denial?" Tatsuki suggested, "Maybe he didn't believe us. Or maybe he really _doesn't_ like her. I dunno. There's a bunch of reason as to _why_, it's just a matter of deciding which one"

"Maybe it's about what he said in class"

"About not liking her?"

"Yeah," Orihime's eyes were lighting up; Tatsuki could see an idea forming. "Maybe Rukia's going out with that boy to make Ichigo jealous, and to get back at him for what he said! And Ichigo's hiding how he feels because..."

Tatsuki sighed as Orihime went off on a long rant about the situation. She was going to be here for awhile

* * *

Ichigo didn't look around as Rukia walked and climbed into the closet, closing the door behind her. He didn't get off his bed as he listened to her rustle around in there. He was trying to keep himself from doing something along the lines of strangling her. Murder was bad, after all, even if the person _was_ technically already dead.

He just couldn't believe how she had made _him _look like the jackass. _"Did you ever stop to think maybe _you're_ the one with the problem?"_ – just thinking about it made Ichigo's blood pressure go through the roof. He wasn't the one that was acting like he was better than everyone, was he?! He wasn't the one that was going out with someone else, he wasn't the the one that was...

Ichigo's thoughts sputtered out as he realized_ just how_ stupidly jealous he sounded, and silently thanked God that Rukia couldn't read his mind. Maybe he really was the one with the problem. But that didn't explain Rukia's sudden change in attitude, and why she was all of a sudden interested in going out with someone.

_Maybe she likes him_

_He's a human, she's not allowed_

_If you like someone enough, you don't care_

_Rukia's not the kind of person who ignores rules_

_Maybe you just don't know enough about her_

_Maybe you should shut up_

Ichigo suddenly realized that he was talking to a voice in his head, and cursed silently. He was driving himself crazy, thinking about this.

Rukia was her own person. She could do whatever she wanted. If she wanted to go out with a human (that wasn't him) and ruin herself in the Soul Society, whatever. It wasn't his problem, and he had to stop worrying about it. He didn't care. That was what he told himself. He just didn't care.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Yeah. Keep telling yourself that Ichi. They say if your brain keeps telling you something, your heart starts to believe it. Or something like that. Anyways, Not much Ichi/Ruki in this chapter, I know, but in the next chapter there'll be a little more. Anyways, while I was on vacation I got my hands on a notebook and pen, and planned out the rest of this story, as well as another one (Ichi/Ruki, AU, not sure if I'm putting it up yet though), and this stories going to be 14 chapters and an epilogue. Yay!. Now for a total spazz attack: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! I friggin' love you guys! One hundred reviews! Thank you soooooooooo much! Okay, I'm done. Now, I didn't like this chapter so much, so I'm going to set my review limit for...somewhere between 105 and 110. I'll take more if you really liked it though. Oh, and cookies to everyone who reviewed last time!_ /hands out cookies/ _candy to anyone who reviews this time! (I hit a candy store in Perkin's Cove, I got tons of the stuff now) 


	6. Misadventures in Matchmaking

**Disclaimer: **Oh yeah, I most definitely own Bleach. Come on! I'm not even Japanese

**Author's Note**: I forget who, but someone reviewed saying they couldn't see where the story was going, and that they think it's weird that Ichigo and Rukia have moved past what happened in the first chapter. I'm sure a lot of people are thinking that, so I'm just going to answer it publicly: they most certainly have not forgotten what happened (even though they are trying) and the little...event resurfaces again in chapter 9. And as for the story...it's going to Ichigo and Rukia, of course! If you really want to know what that means, then you're just going to have to read until the very end _/winks/_

* * *

**Chapter 6** – Misadventures in Matchmaking

The next day was a weird one indeed in the way of Ichigo and Rukia. Rukia once again left before Ichigo had even awoken, and when Ichigo finally arrived at school (after nearly being piled-driven by his dad), he found her standing just outside the entrance to the school, talking to Yukio in her ridiculously high voice, and laughing. Ichigo shoved his hands into his pockets to give himself something to do (because murder was out of the question) and stormed past the two into school. He was so upset he didn't even notice Tatsuki and Orihime standing just inside the entrance, watching Yukio and Rukia. And even if he had, he probably wouldn't have cared. He was too busy trying to push down the sinking feeling in his stomach, and the pain in his heart.

He didn't talk much during lunch, and finally got so annoyed with Keigo he punched the boy in the face. Keigo, of course, just whined about how betrayed he was, and how Ichigo was supposed to be his friend. Ichigo, of course, ignored him. "What's with you?" Mizuiro finally asked. Ichigo just shook his head, unwilling to speak. As they walked back into class, he saw Rukia sitting with Orihime and Tatsuki, laughing at something one of them had just said. And he resisted the urge to punch something again. How could she just sit there...so casual...when she had to have known she was breaking his heart?

* * *

Rukia didn't look at Ichigo all day. During lunch her friends grilled her for information on Yukio. She gave them as much as she could, in the end simply saying he was a nice person. "What about Ichigo?" Michiru asked, curious.

"What about him?"

"Well don't you like him?"

"I told you before, Ichigo and I are just friends"

She didn't notice the look that went between Orihime and Tatsuki. All she noticed was the weird twinge at heart. She felt terrible. But this was the only way. In the long run, it'd be better. Ichigo deserved someone normal, someone who wouldn't get him into life or death situations. Rukia was neither of those things.

Someday Ichigo would thank her for this

* * *

"Hey Rukia, Tatsuki and I were wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight?" Orihime gave the short, dark-haired girl a smile, "It'll be fun!"

"Uh..." to say Rukia looked unsure of this would have been an understatement, "Well...what were you going to do?"

"Well, we were thinking about going out for some coffee, then maybe the mall afterwards," Orihime crossed her fingers behind her back, waiting, waiting...

"Well, okay, I guess," Orihime grinned.

"All right, meet us at the coffee shop at five-thirty, k?" without waiting for an answer, Orihime bounced away, waving and yelling, "See ya!"

She met Tatsuki around the the corner. "Well?"

"He said he'd be there," Tatsuki sighed, "It took a lot of convincing though. And maybe a little bit of pain. Tell me why we're doing this again?"

"Because it's fun!" Tatsuki rolled her eyes. She'd probably expected an answer like that. "So anyways-"

"Wait," Tatsuki cut Orihime off, "Don't you think they're going to be a tad on the side of pissed when they realize we blew them off?"

"Doubtful," Orihime chirped, "I'm sure it'll be great"

Tatsuki, somehow, didn't think so

The two girls arrived at the coffee shop at five, and staked out a table in the very back, out of the view of the door. They wanted to see how this went.

Rukia arrived first, predictably enough. She bought a soda and sat down, sipping it, her eyes occasionally flitting to the door. "Ichigo might just decide to not come," Tatsuki muttered as Orihime looked on intently. "He didn't seem overly thrilled by the idea to begin with"

* * *

Ichigo shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked down the street to the coffee shop. Why Tatsuki suddenly wanted him to hang out with her and Orihime, Ichigo couldn't _begin_ to guess. However, he enjoyed having all his limbs intact, and Tatsuki had been wearing a look that clearly said, "Say no and I'll break whichever bone I can grab first"

Ichigo had decided it was better not to argue. Instead, he resigned himself to dragging his sorry butt down to the coffee shop, and enduring whatever hell Orihime and Tatsuki decided they wanted to put him through.

However, when he arrived at the coffee shop, he received a surprise; Orihime and Tatsuki were no where to be found. And what was even more surprising was that _Rukia_ was there. He walked over to where she was. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She glared up at him. "Sitting"

"Oh witty," he rolled his eyes, "Don't suppose you've seen Orihime and Tatsuki. For some _odd_ reason they wanted me to meet them here"

Rukia made a face. "No, haven't seen them. Orihime said the same thing to me though"

Ichigo scowled. "So first they tell us to meet them here, then they decide not to show. Typical"

He turned to leave. "It's only a little past five-thirty," Rukia said mildly, "You could just wait. They might still show up"

Ichigo sighed. On the one hand, he_ really_ didn't want to be there. But on the other hand, this was the first time he'd gotten a chance to talk to Rukia for awhile. She'd started avoiding the house, only coming in super-late when she was sure he was asleep, and leaving long before he woke up.

Plus, they were in public now, so she couldn't hit him. Seeing the many highlights of this, Ichigo decided to stay, and sat down across from Rukia.

She glared at him again, her violet eyes cold. "So," he leaned back, trying to seem casual, "How come you've been avoiding me?"

"Haven't been avoiding you," she took another sip of her soda.

"You've been coming home late," he tried to keep the note of accusation out of his voice, "Where've you been?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Ichigo did his best not to sound annoyed. "Well yeah. I mean, if you want to tell me. If you don't, I don't really care"

"I've been with Yukio," if Ichigo had been drinking anything at the moment, he probably would have spit it out.

"With _who_?!" forgetting that he was supposed to act casual, he sprang up, amber eyes wide with shock.

"Yukio," she repeated, taking another sip of her soda, only to find out it was empty. "Hmn, I'm gonna go get a new one, be right back"

She stood up and walked over to the counter, leaving Ichigo to try and recollect himself. He sat down again, running a hand through his unruly orange hair. Rukia returned a few minutes later with a new soda. "So uh..." he was trying to make up for before, "What do you do with Yukio?"

"Talk, mostly," she played with the straw she'd grabbed, "His dad's away on a business trip, so we hang out at his house"

"And that's all you do?" Ichigo asked cautiously. "Talk?"

Rukia took a sip of her soda, a devilish smirk playing around her lips. "Why do you ask?"

This was going from bad to worse. Ichigo had to cover himself up. Fast. "No reason. Do what you want. I don't care, remember?"

"Exactly," Rukia swirled her straw around in her drink, making the ice clink against the plastic cup. It was rather infuriating. "You don't care. And even if you did, what does it matter?"

"What does that mean?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.

"Nothing happened between us, right Ichigo?" her voice was so sickeningly sweet, it was almost worse than the voice she used around the other kids at school.

"No. Of course not. Nothing happened"

"Then what does it matter what I do with Yukio?" Ichigo shuddered, trying to suppress the mental images her words had called up.

"It doesn't, I just don't want you to do something that'll get you back on death row with the Soul Society," he told her icily, "I can't be there to save you every time you know"

"I know," she looked down at the thin watch strapped around her small wrist. "Well, I'd say Orihime and Tatsuki aren't showing up, wouldn't you?"

Ichigo looked at a clock on the wall. It was almost six. "Yeah, I guess," he said.

"Well then-"

"Rukia!" the girl in question looked around, and her face lit up.

"Yukio!" Ichigo bit his tongue as Rukia reverted back to her 'innocent-school-girl' tone, and looked behind him. Sure enough, there was Yukio, looking down at Rukia with a wide smile. "I didn't know you were going to be here," she said, standing up. Yukio looked between Rukia and Ichigo, and the smile faltered.

"Am I...interrupting something?"

"No, no!" Rukia stood up quickly, false smile in place, "This is just a coincidence, I didn't expect to see Ichigo here anymore than I did you. But then we started talking, and one thing led to another...but we're done now, right Ichigo?"

Ichigo tried not to yell in pure frustration, and simply said through gritted teeth. "Yeah. We're done"

Rukia shot Yukio a smile. He looked relieved now. "So do you wanna hang out for a bit?"

"Sure!" Rukia nodded enthusiastically. As she and Yukio left, she shot Ichigo a smile, which could have been similar to the one she gave Yukio, but Ichigo knew it was really a triumphant smirk. If Ichigo had been alone, he probably would have hit something.

* * *

"So _did_ I interrupt something?" Yukio asked as he and Rukia walked down the street.

"'Course not!" Rukia grimaced on the inside. She hated this voice almost as much as Ichigo did (it was almost impossible to hate something _as much _as Ichigo did).

"Well, you and Ichigo looked kind of close..." Yukio sounded doubtful. "What were you talking about anyway?"

"Oh, this and that," Rukia said airily, trying to push it off as nothing, "You see, we were supposed to meet Orihime and Tatsuki there – you know them, they're in our class – but they never showed up. And Ichigo and I started talking, and we lost track of time, that's all"

"But you told me you didn't know Ichigo was going to be there"

Rukia hesitated for a second before saying, "Orihime didn't _tell_ me he was going to there. He told me Tatsuki invited him"

Apparently she'd hesitated for a second too long though, because now Yukio looked extremely doubtful."Come on," she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the street, "Do you _really _think Ichigo's my type?"

That did it. He laughed. "No way. Ichigo always seems mad, whereas you always seem...I dunno, bubbly, happy"

Rukia gave him a smile, just to prove his point. "Exactly. So, what do you wanna do?"

"Well..." he thought for a second. "Wanna go see a movie?"

"Sure!"

* * *

"That was...a disaster," Tatsuki sighed as she and Orihime walked back to Orihime's apartment.

"I don't think disaster _begins_ to describe it," Orihime seemed _awfully_ down, "We're not very good matchmakers, are we?"

"Nope," Tatsuki shoved her hands into her pockets, "Why are you so obsessed with getting them together, anyway? I thought _you_ liked Ichigo?"

"I did," Tatsuki noted the use of the past tense word _did_, and cocked her head curiously. "Well, you see," Orihime explained, "I know he doesn't like me, not like that, but I can tell, he _does_ like Rukia. Whenever she's around, he seems so much...happier"

"How can you tell, he always seems mad to me"

"Yeah, but...I can just tell," Orihime smiled, "And if Rukia is what makes Ichigo happy, then he deserves her, doesn't he?"

Tatsuki was surprised. She'd never heard Orihime talking like _this_. "So, now what should we do?"

"For what?"

"For getting them together!" Tatsuki groaned.

"Orihime?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we should cross matchmaking off our list of possible careers"

"You wanna give up?"

"If Ichigo and Rukia are meant to be together they will be," Tatsuki looked up as the streetlight above her flickered to life. "They don't need us. And besides: we're not cut out for this kind of stuff"

* * *

**Author's Note: **And with that, two perfectly...bad matchmakers retire. Thank goodness too, I don't think Ichigo and Rukia can handle another confrontation like_ that_. Anyways, a little bit of Ichi/Ruki, not particularly romantic, but...at least they didn't walk away from the conversation wanting to kill each other!_ /sees people with pitchforks/ _Oh come_ oooon_...it wasn't that bad, was it? Anyways, you guys blew me out with reviews on the last chapter, I got at least ten more than I figured I would. Try and do that this time to, k?_ /winks/_ My goal this time is anything between 130 and 140, though as usual, I certainly wouldn't say no to more_ /looks nervously at pitchfork people/ _Okay...bye! -Sam 


	7. Apologies and Fights

**Disclaimer: **Do I have to? Oh all right...I DON'T OWN BLEACH. Yeesh...

* * *

**Chapter 7 – **Apologies and Fights 

"Hi Rukia!" the raven-haired girl looked up from the book she was currently reading. Orihime was sitting on the desk next to Rukia.

"Oh, hi Orihime," Rukia smiled, "Where were you yesterday? Ichigo and I waited for half an hour"

Orihime frowned, suddenly looking...upset? Guilty? Impossible to tell. "Oh yeah, about that. Sorry, something came up, Tatsuki and I couldn't make it. Was Ichigo mad?"

"No," Rukia marked her place in the book and closed it, "I'm not sure how much longer he hung around though after I left. Yukio showed up," she added to Orihime's confused look, "I kinda got the feeling Ichigo didn't want to be there anyway, so I figured if I left he would too"

Orihime nodded, kicking her legs interestedly back and forth. "Say. Rukia?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like Yukio?"

Rukia wasn't sure how to answer that. She knew she could tell Orihime the truth, about how she was just using Yukio to make everyone stop talking, and to make sure Ichigo really _didn't_ have any interest in her. But somehow, Rukia knew Orihime wouldn't be very happy with that. "He's just...different, that's all"

* * *

Ichigo muttered swears under his breath as he walked to school. He could feel a lump rising on his head where his dad had nailed him. Aggravated, the orange-haired teen shoved his left hand into his pocket, and slung his school bag over his shoulder. He'd missed Rukia again that morning. Not that it surprised him, of course. The only time he ever saw her anymore, despite the fact they lived together, was at school. Too damn infuriating.

His mind was racing by the time he got into school, and he barely noticed when he walked into Tatsuki. She grunted as she hit the floor, then looked up, glaring daggers at him. "Watch it you oaf!"

"Sorry," Ichigo rolled his eyes, not the least bit sorry. "Consider that payback for abandoning me with Rukia last night"

"Oh yeah," Tatsuki stood up, dusting herself off and grabbing her school bag, "Sorry about that, something came up though, Orihime and I couldn't make it. I'm sure you and Rukia were okay together though"

Ichigo just shrugged. "That idiot Yukio showed up and she left with him"

"Oh," Tatsuki made a face, "You don't like that kid too much, do you?"

"I could care less"

"Is it because he likes Rukia?"

"Tatsuki, shut up," Ichigo turned away from the girl, "I don't _care_ about Yukio, okay? Or his little crush, for that matter"

"All right Ichigo, whatever you say," it was clear from her tone that Tatsuki didn't believe him one bit. But whatever. He didn't care.

* * *

At the end of school that day, Rukia did something she didn't do that often; she went straight home. She knew Ichigo wouldn't be there; she'd heard during lunch that Keigo had somehow roped the boy into an "afternoon with the guys". Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu wouldn't be there either. Isshin was away on a business trip, and Karin and Yuzu were staying with friends until he returned. So Rukia had the house to herself.

She hoisted herself in through Ichigo's window, dropping her school bag on the floor as she stepped in, and laying her books on his desk. She looked around, wondering for a second what she should do, and decided almost at once that she wanted to take a shower. It'd been awhile since she'd had a chance to enjoy a good, hot shower. So she grabbed some of the clothes she'd _borrowed_ from Yuzu (a white and blue tie-dye dress) and went into the bathroom. She turned the shower on as hot as it would go, and climbed in, letting the overly hot water pour over her. It burned his skin, leaving angry red marks, but somehow she didn't seem to notice it. It was almost as if her entire body was numb.

* * *

Ichigo ran as fast as he could to his house. He'd just barely escaped Keigo and Mizuiro, and was now running for his life. If there was one thing he did_ not _want to do, it was hang out with Keigo and Mizuiro. Not when the fuse that was his temper was already so close to the bomb.

The first thing Ichigo noticed when he walked into his room was the presence of another school bag, and a small stack of books on his desk. So._ She_ was home already. Probably hadn't expected _him_ to be home.

Just as he finished changing into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, his bedroom door opened and Rukia walked in. She froze, her violet eyes wide, when she saw him. And all Ichigo could was thank God she hadn't walked in two minutes earlier, when he had been almost completely naked. "I thought you were hanging out with Mizuiro and Keigo," aha.

"Decided not to," he said casually, "So, remember what this place looks like during the day?"

"What do you mean?" her voice was forcibly calm.

"Well, it's been so long since you were here in the afternoon...usually you don't come home until midnight. Or later," he shrugged, "So what _are_ you doing here?"

"I just...felt like coming home for once," she imitated him, shrugging carelessly, "Anyways, don't worry, I'm not staying"

"Oh? Where are you going?"

She turned to leave again. "Out"

"With Yukio?"

"Does it really matter that much to you if I am?" he scowled at her back. _Why_ did she always answer him like _that_?

"No, you know it doesn't matter"

"Then why you do always ask?" she left before he could say anymore. Annoyed, he did the first thing that came to mind; he whirled around and kicked his desk as hard as he could. Then hopped around for a good five minutes, wondering if he had broken his toes.

* * *

Rukia had been lying. But what else was new? Originally, she hadn't had any plans at all, with Yukio or anyone else. But she didn't want to hang around Ichigo. And Yukio's father was still away... 

She rang the doorbell, and waited patiently. After a few seconds, the door flew open. Yukio smiled warmly when he saw Rukia on his doorstep. "Oh, hey Rukia. What's up?"

"Not much," she put on a smile herself, "I know your dad's still away, I thought maybe you'd like some company or something"

"Well, I certainly wouldn't say no," he stepped aside and held out his hand, beckoning for her to come in. "So you thirsty?" he asked as he led her into the kitchen, "I have orange juice, apple juice, soda..."

"Apple juice sounds good," she said after a second, hoping and praying it wasn't a juice box. It would look pretty stupid, after all, if she asked for help.

Thankfully though, Yukio poured it in a glass. "So how's the unpacking going?" Rukia asked as she looked around. She noticed that there were a_ lot _fewer boxes then when she had first started coming over.

"Not bad," Yukio shrugged, sipping his own juice, "It's like I said before, my dad works a lot, and now he's on a trip, so I have to do a lot of it by myself"

"Do you want some help?"

"Oh no, I couldn't ask you to-"

"Oh please," Rukia smiled as she set her glass down and stood up, "I insist"

And that was how the two ended up in Yukio's room, unpacking boxes. They talked aimlessly about nothing in particular, and Rukia couldn't help but notice how comfortable she felt around Yukio. It was so different then when she was with Ichigo. When she was with him she was constantly worrying about one thing or another, whether it be a hollow attack, or what the Soul Society would say if the two of them were ever _really_ together...but it was all different with Yukio.

Rukia opened another box. On the very top of the pile of junk inside was a picture of a beautiful woman with white-blond hair and bright blue eyes. "Who's this?" she looked over at Yukio, who smiled sadly at the picture.

"It's my mom," he said, his own, blue-gray eyes shining sadly, "I don't really remember much about her, but dad's always telling me she was a really nice person. She loved me more than anything, he's always saying. I wish I could remember more about her. But she died when I was about two. She was really sick, you see. Sometimes at night, I have dreams about her. It's weird, but even though I've seen pictures of her, I can never really see her face in the dreams. It's always hidden by a shadow or something. Crazy huh?"

Rukia shook her head. "No, it's not crazy at all," she couldn't say it to Yukio, of course, but she knew how he felt. She'd never known _her_ mother. Or her father for that matter. Or even her sister, Hisana. So she knew how Yukio felt.

But she couldn't say that. "It's not crazy," she said instead. She stood up and and set the picture down on his bureau. He smiled as he looked up at it.

"Yeah. Guess not"

* * *

Ichigo tapped his foot in beat to the music that blasted through his earphones. It was well past midnight. He had school tomorrow. But he had to stay awake. No matter how late it got to be, he _had _to stay awake. 

It was time for another talk with the midget Soul Reaper, the one who infuriated Ichigo every time he so much as _thought _about her. Because if they didn't talk soon, he might very well go insane. If he hadn't already.

His head jerked up as Rukia climbed in silently through the window. She jumped when she saw him. "Oh. What are you still doing awake?"

"Waiting for you," he yanked his earphones out and stood up, "We need to talk"

"In the morning, Ichigo, I'm tired," she started to walk over to the closet. He jumped over his bed and got to the closet first, holding it shut with one hand.

"You're not too tired to stay out past midnight," he said harshly, "You can talk for five or ten minutes"

She glared up at him. "What do you want from me?"

"Just tell me this much; does Yukio really mean that much to you?"

"What does that mean?"

"I mean do you_ really_ care about him?"

"What do you care?"

"Because I do!" he was almost shouting now, "Stop leading me around Rukia and give me a straight answer!"

"You don't get it Ichigo!" she shouted back, her violet eyes blazing, "And I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you! It's better this way, all right?"

"It's not all right!" he said angrily, "What are you trying to do Rukia?"

"What do you care?"

"God damn, stop answering me like that!" his temper, so short these days, was already at it's limit.

"No!" she snapped, "You don't seem to get it Ichigo; you can't care. Got it? If you care, bad things could happen. So just _stop caring_"

She pushed his hand angrily away from the closet door, yanked it open, climbed in, and slammed it shut. Ichigo glared at the door for a second, then walked over to his bureau and grabbed his pajamas to start changing. As he buttoned up his pajama shirt, he turned his gaze back to the closet. He could hear her moving around inside. And for some reason, that bugged him greatly. He turned away, and before he'd even realized what he was doing, he slammed his fist into the wall.

* * *

**Author's Note:**_/sigh/_ Ichigo and Rukia...what the hell are we going to do with them? At this rate they'll never end up together...wait, wait, I shouldn't have said that! _/shifty eyes/_ go back and erase your memories! Do it! Now! All right, did you forget? Okay, good ) Anyways, if you guys could be really nice, and bring me up to 170 reviews (or maybe a few more) I'd love you all forever (and you'd get taffy. Does taffy sound good?). Oh, and there's been a slight shift in my chapters. I originally planned for there to be 14 and an Epilogue, but one of my chapter ideas didn't quite pan out, so now it's 13 and an Epilogue. And that's important if you remember what I said in the last chapter. All righty, review and tell me how horrible this was - Sam 


	8. Rumors Kill

**Disclaimer**: I. Don't. Own. Bleach

* * *

**Chapter 8** – Rumors Kill 

Rukia and Ichigo's friendship was definitely on the rocks these days. It had gotten to the point where they could barely stand to be alone together; Ichigo was sick to death of Rukia's high and mighty attitude. Rukia was tired of having to act so cold and uncaring, though, on the upside, it had a bit of a numbing effect on her body, and made it so much easier to act the way she did towards Ichigo.

Ichigo had gotten to the point where he was literally ready to strangle someone. He couldn't stand the tension that had grown between him and Rukia, it was driving him insane. He never thought he'd see a day where he couldn't talk to _her_. She had once said about being there to listen if he wanted to talk, but these days Ichigo felt as though talking to her would be impossible. Maybe it was because_ she_ was the main source of all his problems.

Rukia, meanwhile, remained oblivious to Ichigo's pain. She knew he was upset with her, because of the way he always acted when she was around. But she took it at face value, not bothering to look past his usual scowl. Instead she focused on her own problems; the foremost being that there were _still _rumors about her and Ichigo going around. And it was driving her crazy. No matter what she did, she couldn't seem to get people to shut up. Rukia was really beginning to wish she'd never gone to that damn party.

"_So_?" Rukia looked up from the sandwich she was eating.

"So what?"

Her friends exchanged annoyed glances, and Michiru said, "So are you _really_ going out with Yukio?!"

Rukia blinked. "What do you mean?"

"We all thought you loved Ichigo!" Chizuru declared loudly, enough to make everyone in the vicinity look around.

"Shush!" Rukia tried to get them to quiet down, "I've told you before – a million times in fact – Ichigo and I are j_ust friends_! Really, I'd love to know where you guys get these ideas from!"

"Well, for one thing you're always together"

"And you seem really close"

"And then there's the party..."

Rukia swore that she'd never go to another party for as long as she lived. "Really, you girls have such a wild imagination!" she laughed, cringing on the inside, "Ichigo and I...we're just friends, that's all"

"So you and Yukio...?"

Rukia started plucking at the grass, "Yukio's a good person, I like him"

"And you and Ichigo are...?"

"Just friends"

* * *

"I can't believe she's actually going out with Yukio," Keigo muttered under his breath, his arms folded, "I mean, what does he have that _I_ don't?"

Ichigo would rather rot in hell then admit that _he_ had been wondering them same thing about himself. Instead he just said, "Keigo, shut up, no one cares"

"_I _care!" and with that he went off on a long rant. Ichigo rolled his eyes and tuned him out.

"You know, it _is_ kind of interesting," he looked over at Uryu, who had, up until that point, been quietly eating from his spot next to Chad.

"I don't think so," Ichigo shrugged, "I mean, for one thing, it's just Rukia. Why should anyone care what she does? And for another thing-"

"It's Rukia," Uryu cut him off, "I'd think you cared quite a bit"

"Why would I?"

"Well, everyone knows you like her-"

Ichigo resisted the urge to throw his juice-box at the Quincy. "I liked you better when you didn't talk"

Uryu just shrugged, but to Ichigo's great relief he shut up. The orange-haired teen wasn't in the mood to hear that everyone knew he liked Rukia. He wasn't in the mood to let his mind be brought back to the damn party that started all of this. He just wanted to be left alone, alone to the company of his thoughts. He didn't want to have to deal with real life right then.

By chance, he happened to look down at the ground below. And he saw Yukio walking over to where Rukia was with her friends. When she looked up and saw him, her eyes lit up in a way Ichigo had never known was possible. And he had to resist the growing temptation to throw himself over the fence and off the roof. He deserved a reward for great self control.

The day passed more or less uneventfully, though Ichigo couldn't stop himself from throwing devilish glares at the back of Rukia's head every now and then. When the last bell rang, the raven-haired Soul Reaper darted out of class. Ichigo took off after her.

"Rukia, hang on!" he caught up with her just outside the school grounds. She didn't turn around, but she stopped walking.

"What's up, Ichigo?"

"Look," he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around, "We...have to talk"

He was surprised when she looked around at him. "Yeah. We do, don't we?"

They started walking down the street together, quiet. Rukia was the first to break the silence. "You know, Ichigo, I hate the way things are now. Us not really talking, I mean. Things have been...weird, the last few weeks"

"You can say that again," Ichigo muttered, slinging his schoolbag over his shoulders, "And I hate it too. I dunno why, you're...I mean, why things have been like this, but they-"

"Wait a sec," she stopped walking and looked up at him, "What were you going to say before?"

Ichigo blinked, knowing full well what she was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"'I dunno why, you're...'. You're _what_? What am I, Ichigo?" her voice had taken on a cool tone.

"Nothing. I didn't mean anything by it, Rukia," he turned to start walking again, "I wasn't thinking when I started talking-"

"No, you were thinking just fine," she stood rooted to her spot, "Now, what were you going to say?"

He was going to say that he felt as if a lot of the distance between them was _her _fault, that if she would just ditch Yukio and allow them to admit that something really _had_ happened that night, then things would be better. But somehow, he knew that wouldn't roll well with her. "Nothing. I wasn't going to say anything"

"You're lying," maybe it was the cool, sure way she said it that threw Ichigo off. Or maybe it was the way she was glaring at him. Maybe she _knew_ what he was going to say before.

"No, I'm not," he insisted, "Stop being so paranoid"

"Come on Ichigo; what were you going to say?"

"Nothing"

"You're lying"

"No I'm not!" he turned away from her, fuming now.

"Just tell me what you were going to say"

"Fine!" he lost his patience, "I was going to say that this all your fault to begin with! That if it wasn't for you insisting that nothing could have happened, then turning around and going out with Yukio, we wouldn't be like this right now!"

"_My_ fault?!" she repeated, "Well excuse me, but last time I checked I was perfectly entitled to do what I wanted, and that includes going out with someone!"

"After you told me that the Soul Society would never allow a human and Soul Reaper to be together?"

"That's different"

"Oh yeah?" Ichigo scoffed, "How so? Because it's me?"

"Exactly," he whirled around to look at her, but she had turned and taken off down the street.

"Hey!" he yelled after her, "Get back here! Rukia!"

She didn't listen. What a surprise.

* * *

"Okay, I'll bite. What's wrong?" Rukia looked up from her food at Yukio, who was watching her with an amused look.

"What do you mean?"

"I _mean_ you haven't said two words in the last hour," Yukio explained, playing with his fork, "And I get the feeling you haven't really been listening either. I mean, I enjoy talking to myself as much as the next person, but crazy people enjoy company every now and then as well"

Rukia smiled at this. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. I...had a fight with a friend, earlier"

"Oh yeah?" Yukio cocked his head. "What about?"

"Oh nothing big," Rukia tried to make it look like it wasn't that big a deal, "We're...kind of in a rough patch right now, and he thinks it's my fault"

"He? We wouldn't happen to be talking about Ichigo Kurosaki, would we?" Rukia's eyes widened in surprise.

"How'd you know?"

Yukio laughed. "I listen. You should hear some of the rumors going around, kinda put me off when I first started hearing them"

Rukia bit her lip. She knew people were talking. She didn't know Yukio had heard them. "Those rumors are actually part of the problem. We really _are_ just friends, but everyone's making it hard on us because they like to think we're more than that, and we keep getting into these fights over it..."

"That's too bad," Yukio said as Rukia's voice trailed off, "Kurosaki doesn't seem like that bad of a guy, and obviously he's okay if he's friends with you. You shouldn't let a bunch of rumors get in the way"

"You think so?"

"Of course; hell, if I'd listened to rumors I probably wouldn't be with you right now," Rukia smiled and allowed a light blush to scatter across her face.

They finished eating in silence and left soon after. It was just past eight, and the streets of Karakura were still fairly busy. Rukia looked up at the sky; the stars were twinkling above her, almost mischievously. "It's a nice night," Yukio broke through her thoughts.

"Yeah, beautiful," she sighed. She was trying to keep her mind off Ichigo for a little while. It wasn't working.

"Hey, Rukia?"

"Yeah?"

"What...made you decide to say yes? When I asked you out, I mean," Rukia made a face. She couldn't tell Yukio the real reason for why she had agreed. So she decided to try something totally different for her; she lied.

"Because...you seem like a good person, and I thought I'd give you a chance," she shrugged, "And I know how it feels to be the new kid, it's lonely. I figured the least I could was help a fellow outcast feel welcome"

"You're not an outcast, you have plenty of friends"

"They've known each other all their lives though," Rukia frowned, "I'm still _just_ the new girl in that group"

"That's the problem with moving to a new town," Yukio shoved his hands into his pockets, "You're always invading on someone else"

He understood, just as she knew he would. They walked along in silence for a few, until Rukia finally made her decision. "Yukio?"

"Yeah?" he looked down at her; she pushed herself up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

* * *

Chizuru, Michiru, and Ryo were walking down the street, talking aimlessly, when Michiru happened to look across the street. She stopped dead, her eyes wide. Chizuru and Ryo looked around. "What?"

Michiru raised a finger and pointed. Standing on the opposite side of the street were Rukia Kuchiki and Yukio Ryuichi. And they were kissing.

Even Ryo didn't bother to hide her shock. "They...they're..."

"Well," Chizuru said finally, "I guess...Rukia wasn't lying. She and Ichigo really _are_ just friends"

"Yeah," Michiru continued to stare. "Yeah. Guess so"

* * *

**Author's Note**_/half way through building a bomb shelter/ _Oh. Crap. You're done reading already. Well then, I'll keep this short and sweet. Any review number between 190 and 200 or above would be wonderful. Thank you _/grabs a helmet and a baseball bat and dives into half-built bomb shelter/_ Oh, and here's the taffy for everyone that reviewed last time. Don't ask what you'll get if you review this time; not sure yet. Maybe cake _/dives back into bomb shelter...again/_ Oh, and one more thing: major Ichigo/Rukia interaction (in a good way) in the next chapter. So if you _have_ to kill me, wait until I post that chapter. Okay, I'm done _/dives into bomb shelter for the last time/_


	9. Protecting Him

**Disclaimer** – Don't own it, won't own it. All I own is Yukio (And I'm trying to sell him)

* * *

**Chapter 9** – Protecting Him

It wasn't the fact that she did it that bothered Ichigo. No. Of course not. She was a big girl, she was perfectly entitled to do whatever she wanted. That didn't bother him at all.

No. What bothered him, what made him want to find the nearest gun and shoot someone, was_ how_ he found out about it.

"What's _his_ problem?" Ichigo jerked his thumb at Keigo, who looked extra sulky today. They were up on the roof eating lunch, and Keigo, surprisingly, had yet to utter two words. Mizuiro shrugged.

"I think it's something about Rukia and Yukio"

Ichigo scowled. Those were the two people he wanted to talk about least at the moment. "What's the big deal? I don't think they even really like each other"

Keigo spoke at last, "If that's the case then why did they kiss last night?!"

Ichigo, who had been in the middle of taking a sip of juice, choked, and had to work very hard to keep from spitting the juice out. "W-_What_?!"

Mizuiro nodded, "We heard Michiru telling Orihime about it earlier"

Ichigo did his best not to appear to upset at the news. "Big deal. It's not like it's against the law or anything. Get over it Keigo"

But at that moment, two very conflicting emotions were raging inside Ichigo's head. One was absolute pain. How could Rukia do this? How could she just forget him so easily? Did she really like Yukio? What was her story already?

The other emotion was blind rage. He wanted to find Yukio and tear the boy limb from limb. Then he wanted to find Rukia and demand an explanation. And if she didn't give a descent one he'd probably pound her as well (of course, she'd probably hit him right back).

Ichigo struggled to keep both emotions hidden. Luckily, with Keigo's bad mood, it was a quiet lunch period. No one noticed the orange-haired teen fighting with himself.

* * *

Rukia was thrilled. No, she was beyond thrilled. Everything had worked out exactly the way she'd planned it. The streets had been so crowded, someone was _bound_ to see her kiss Yukio. It just happened to be her luck that it was Chizuru and Michiru, two of the biggest mouths in their grade. The news had spread like wildfire. By lunchtime it was hard to find a soul alive that didn't know about it. 

_So long rumors_

"So?!" Rukia jumped and pulled herself back to reality. Mahana was watching her expectantly, as were Orihime and Tatsuki.

"So...what?"

"So did you really kiss Yukio?!" Orihime exploded.

"Oh, that..." Rukia giggled, pretending to be embarrassed, "Well, maybe..."

"Come on!" Michiru protested, "Chizuru, Ryo, and I all saw it. 'Fess up Rukia!"

"Okay, okay," Rukia had to work hard to suppress her triumphant smirk, "Yes, I kissed him"

There was a moment of silence, then every girl started talking at once, throwing questions at Rukia. "Hey, wait a sec! I can only answer one at a time you know!"

Not that it stopped them from going on and on. They didn't stop hounding her the entire lunch period, and Rukia couldn't help but notice that not one of the questions had the word "Ichigo" in it. It was almost as if they'd forgotten the fact that they used to think she liked _him_. Success.

The bell rang and the girls hurried back to class, still talking about Yukio. Rukia finally allowed a small smirk to shine through, though she masked it as a simple smile. When they walked into the classroom though, the smile fell.

Ichigo was already in there, sitting at his seat with his chin rest on his hand. Rukia, finally taking the time to look at him properly for the first time in weeks, so something hidden behind his usual scowl – well, a lot of somethings, actually. She saw a look of pain, betrayal, a look of rage and resentment. And she saw a look of absolute longing.

_Longing? For what? For...me?_

Ichigo caught Rukia staring at him, and quickly looked out the window, turning his face away from her. Rukia took her seat, no longer in a good mood at all. Her mind spent most of the afternoon on Ichigo, and what she had seen in his eyes. Was she just imagining it? Did she _want_ to see it because it meant he really cared about her? How long had the look been there? Had she been so caught up in her own life she hadn't noticed before?

Needless to say, Rukia felt terrible by the time school let out. Her earlier glow of triumph no longer existed. Now that she really stopped to think about it, she realized just how bad things had gotten between her and Ichigo. She was supposed to be the observant one, he the ignorant one. But somehow they'd switched roles; he'd been in pain, and she hadn't noticed. And if that was the case, he'd been right before; this estrangement really _was _her fault.

Rukia, so lost in her thoughts, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Which was probably how she ended up in the street. And why she didn't notice the car coming at her at ninety miles an hour until it was too late. Luckily for her though, someone else did.

The horn blaring brought Rukia back to reality, and at the same time she felt someone grab her arm and yank her out of the way as hard as she could. The car missed Rukia by inches, and she stumbled back, tripping when she hit the curb and falling along with the person who'd saved her. "Are you okay?" Rukia rubbed her head and looked around. It was Orihime.

"Thanks you," Rukia said in a breathless tone, pushing herself up, "That was so stupid of me, I should have been paying more attention. Thanks a lot though, I don't even wanna think about what would have happened if you weren't here"

She stood up and held out her hand to help up Orihime. The girl accepted, but the serious expression she wore on her face never changed. Finally Rukia couldn't take it. "Okay, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Orihime shook her head and stooped down to grab her schoolbag, "And you're welcome"

_Aw_kward. Rukia made a face, trying to decide what to say next. She couldn't remember the last time a conversation had been this uncomfortable. Well, she could. She just didn't want to think about it. "Really, Orihime, is something bothering you? I mean-"

"Nope, nothing," Orihime quickly plastered on a smile, "Don't worry, nothing's wrong. I'd better go, see ya!"

And she took off down the street, leaving Rukia to wonder exactly _what_ had just happened.

* * *

Orihime allowed her fake smile to fade as soon as she was away from Rukia. She couldn't tell her friend what was wrong, because really,_ she_ was the problem.

Orihime was no idiot, she knew Ichigo liked Rukia. And if Orihime knew, Rukia had to know as well. But that wasn't stopping her from going out with another boy, and kissing him, and then, on top of it all, gloating about it at school (Rukia may have been a good actor, but Orihime had seen the look of triumph in those violet eyes).

It upset Orihime, really, thinking about what Rukia was doing. She was hurting a friend, how could she live with that?

But Orihime couldn't tell Rukia that. Because it would have made Rukia mad. And a mad Rukia wasn't something anyone wanted to deal with.

* * *

The days passed without incident. Ichigo, it seemed, had taken up Rukia's favorite pass-time, and started avoiding the raven-haired Soul Reaper. He wasn't sure _why_ he was avoiding her; it just felt like the natural thing to do. 

Rukia, meanwhile, didn't work overly hard to _find_ Ichigo, but she _did_ make an attempt to talk to him a few times. She'd go home right after school, and wait for almost an hour. When he didn't come home, she'd go out, thinking maybe she'd run into him. She'd go home around midnight or so, and he'd already be in his bed, sleeping. Or pretending to sleep, at any rate. Either way, Rukia didn't bother him.

All and all, Rukia and Ichigo's friendship was definitely in danger. They could barely stand to be in the same room together, Rukia because of the guilt she felt for hurting Ichigo, and Ichigo because he just couldn't look at Rukia without wondering why she had, in a sense, betrayed him.

Ichigo and Rukia had been through a lot together. From their first meeting, it seemed as if something had clicked. They'd made it through everything together, from hollow fights, to late night talks (arguments) right through to Rukia's (almost) execution. It seemed, though, that they had finally encountered something their friendship couldn't handle; them.

It'd been two weeks since Rukia had kissed Yukio. Minusing class-time, Rukia and Ichigo hardly saw each other at all anymore. Rukia had given up on trying to work things out, and contented herself to avoiding the house as much as possible. She rarely even went there to sleep anymore, instead spending her nights wandering the streets of Karakura. On one such night she found herself in a very familiar spot.

Her feet had carried her there. The reality was, she didn't even _want _to go. But her feet developed a mind of their own, and very soon, she found herself in the spot where, just months earlier, Ichigo had nearly died trying to protect her.

Rukia, realizing where she was, turned to walk away. She avoided this area, if at all possible. Too many bad memories were associated with it. But after a second, she turned back and sat down on the curb, pulling her knees up beneath her chin, and wrapping her arms around her legs. She stared at the ground, imagining Ichigo lying there, bleeding and dying. She could imagine it just a little too well.

_He could have died,_ she thought dully, _he could have died and it would have been all my fault. He came out here to protect me. He almost died_

Rukia, out of habit, pushed back the tears that threatened to well up whenever she thought about this. She didn't like remembering that night. It'd been a dark, dark night indeed, as well the start of a terrible adventure. For the most part she put it out of her mind. That was why she avoided this spot.

But tonight it seemed right to be here. Thinking about how she had hurt Ichigo, thinking about what had happened, reminded her of something. The Soul Society would never allow them to be together. Anyone who went _against_ the Soul Society ended up dead. Ichigo and Rukia were no different. And while Rukia cared little for herself, she didn't want Ichigo to end up dead because of her.

She was hurting him to protect him. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

* * *

Ichigo was lying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, and debating whether or not to check the closet to see if Rukia was in there. He'd just gotten home an hour before, and had gone straight to bed. He hadn't heard any noise from the closet, but that didn't mean anything; Rukia was normally very good at staying quiet. 

A light breeze blew in the window, washing over Ichigo and ruffling his hair. Somehow, without knowing how, he knew rain was coming. And sure enough, barely five minutes later, the rain started coming down in buckets. But he made no move to close his window. Instead he just continued lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. Not even the loud booms of thunder or the flashes of lightning brought him back to reality. What _did_ bring him back though, was the soft patter of feet, and the sound of water dripping onto the floor. He blinked, sat up, and found himself looking at a soaking wet Rukia Kuchiki. For a second he just stared. The dress she was wearing was clinging to her body in a way that showed off her figure quiet nicely, and her hair was hanging limply around her face. Somehow, it made her look all that much more beautiful.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat; she jumped and looked around.

"Oh, Ichigo. I didn't know you were still awake"

"Disappointed?" again, not knowing why, he threw back the covers and pushed himself out of bed, "I know you like avoiding me..."

"Me?!" she snapped, "Please, _you're_ the one doing the avoiding lately!"

"I don't see you trying to come after me!" he shot back, even though his mind was telling him to just shut up and get back into bed.

"I've tried!" she insisted, "It's not my fault you're impossible to find!"

Apparently no longer interested in the conversation, she stormed over to the closet and started to open the door. Ichigo shoved the door shut and leaned on it so that she couldn't open it again. She glared up at him, violet eyes cold. "Move it"

"No way"

"_Move_!"

"It's my room, I'll do whatever I want"

Something had to be wrong. He and Rukia were fighting (again) and yet all he could do was stare at her wet form, at every curve in her body, and imagine ripping the dress off of her. "Ichigo-" her tone had gone cold. And, not knowing why, and not worrying about the consequences, he leaned down and kissed her.

Her eyes went wide for a second, but she didn't pull away. On the contrary, she pushed herself up onto her tiptoes, and kissed him right back. After a second she wrapped an arm around Ichigo and pulled him back (not that he resisted). After a second they found themselves on the bed, Ichigo on top of Rukia. He pulled away for a second, just long enough to take a breath. She moaned as soon as his lips lefts hers, reached up, grabbed a fistful of hair, and pulled him back. Ichigo allowed himself to be pulled back, and ran a hand through her wet raven hair. He'd wanted this, so badly, for so long...and the best part was, this time they were both sober...

Without warning though, he felt himself being pushed away, and he rolled onto the bed next to Rukia, who instantly sat up, her violet eyes wide. Ichigo, unsure of what just happened, sat up as well and looked at Rukia. Her entire body was shaking. When he reached out to touch her, she flinched and pulled away. "Rukia, what...?"

"I'm sorry," she muttered, and Ichigo saw tears in her eyes. "God Ichigo, I'm so, so sorry"

And with that she bolted into the closet, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Happy Birthday to me...Happy Birthday to me...heehee, that's right, it's ma birthday! That's kinda why I'm updating, I'm in a good mood so I thought I'd share a little love (all though this isn't love...exactly...) anyways, EXTREMELY pleased with my outcome of reviews in the last chapter (though I could tell many people weren't pleased with Yukio and Rukia...trust me, I wasn't either), and though more than one review had an applied death threat (I kind of expected it, hence the bomb shelter), I was very happy with how many people took the time to review. Thank you! So what do you say to...something between 230-240 reviews this time around? (more are always appreciated, of course ) - Sam  



	10. A Turn of Events

**Disclaimer **- This chapter contains mature content and brushes on the subject of rape. Read at your own discretion

* * *

**Chapter 10 - **A Turn of Events

Rukia did everything within her power to avoid Ichigo the next day. After their...confrontation the night before, she didn't think she'd be able to stand even looking at him. She was, however, painfully aware of the presence of her feelings, again. Damn. She thought she'd gotten rid of _those_ for good.

Rukia avoided Yukio as well. After what had happened last night, she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye again.

She didn't even bother trying to pay attention to her friends during lunch. Luckily they took mercy on her and left her alone, realizing that something was obviously wrong. So she was left to her thoughts. Not that they were the best company in the world.

She could still feel Ichigo's body pressing against her own, his hot breath on her face, his lips against hers...and every time the thoughts entered her mind, she struggled to push them back. She was starting to forget why she had started going out with Yukio; it was to make Ichigo _stop_ liking her. Of course, the entire thing was backfiring. He wanted her now more than ever.

What a mess

"Hey, Rukia!" she looked around and saw Yukio walking towards her. The other girls looked around, their own conversations forgotten.

"Hi Yukio," she said in a low voice, "What's up?"

"Can I have a word?" she nodded, and stood up, following him around to the back of the school. "So, Rukia...what happened last night?"

Rukia was truly confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I thought we had a date. You said during school you'd meet me at the coffee shop..." Rukia felt like hitting herself. She'd completely forgotten she'd agreed to go with Yukio. She'd been too lost, brooding too much on her thoughts, to remember much of anything else.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, trying to sound apologetic (though not quite succeeding), "I...something came up..."

"Sorry to hear that," though Rukia's mind was racing with excuses, she couldn't help but notice the cool edge that Yukio's voice had taken on, "Well, why don't we try again tonight? Unless you're busy..."

"No, tonight sounds good," Rukia said quickly, "I'll-I'll be there"

"A movie sound good?"

"Yeah, what time?"

"Around eight?" she nodded, and he smiled. "All right. I'll see you then," he left, and Rukia looked up. She had a clear view of the roof from where she was. And a clear view of a pair of amber eyes staring back at her.

* * *

Ichigo glared down at Rukia. She'd been talking with Yukio. She hadn't even looked at him since she'd darted into the closet last night, and now she was down there, talking to Yukio like she didn't have a care in the world.

Ichigo wanted to hit something. And if Keigo didn't shut up, he might be able to do just that. "You know, whatever the problem is, I don't think murder is going to make it better," Mizuiro informed Ichigo conversationally.

"What?"

"Well, you're looking down there like you want to kill someone," his friend explained, taking a sip of his juice, "Just sayin', whatever's wrong, murder won't make it okay"

"Oh...shut up," Ichigo finally settled for saying, taking a bite of his sandwich, "No one asked you"

"No one ever asks me"

"Then why do you always give your opinion?" Ichigo looked back at Rukia, and saw her heading back towards her friends, who turned to her instantly and started asking questions. They looked like vultures, diving on her. Ichigo bit his tongue to keep from screaming. He needed to talk to Rukia. Whether she liked it or not. Now the only problem was getting her in a place where she couldn't run away.

"Hey, Rukia!" he caught sight of her as soon as he walked into class after the bell rang. She was sitting in back, talking with her friends. She looked around when she heard him yelling, and he saw a weird look in her eyes. He couldn't tell if it was anger, or happiness, or...what.

"Why is it the boys are always calling Rukia?" Ichigo heard Michiru mutter under her breath. Rukia heard too, and laughed.

"You're counting Ichigo as a boy?"

She said it loud enough for Ichigo to hear, of course, and he growled under his breath, shoving his hands into his pockets to resist the urge to strangle the annoying midget. "Can we talk?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Later Ichigo, I"m busy," she turned away from him, and Ichigo shoved his hands deeper into his pockets to keep from hitting her. If he hit her in public, people would talk.

"_No_, Rukia, _now_," she looked around again, and this time her expression was easy to read; she was shocked to hear him being so forceful. The other girls exchanged surprised looks. Finally, Rukia smiled and stood up.

"Okay, if it'll make the pushy boy happy, we'll talk now," she gave her friends a quick wave, "Be right back!" before following Ichigo out into the hall. As soon as they were away from any other ears she dropped her "innocent" act, and said in a cold voice, "What's your problem?"

"My _problem_," he said angrily, "Is the annoying Soul Reaper standing in front of me! What's _wrong_ with you Rukia, ever since..." he tried to put the event in words, "Ever since _that night_, you've been treating me like...like...like you're better than me! Like I'm not good enough for you or something! Like what happened didn't even matter!"

"_Nothing happened_," she said coolly, "Remember? Nothing _could_ happen without you or me or both of us being in a lot of trouble"

"But that makes it okay for you to go out with the new kid?" Ichigo asked angrily, "What makes him so different from me?"

"You don't know everything about that"

"Then why don't you tell me?"

"I can't"

"Why not?!"

"Because you wouldn't understand"

How could she be so calm? How could she act so careless when she was holding his heart in her hand, slowly squeezing the life out of it until it shattered? "So suddenly I wouldn't understand?" he asked in a low voice, trying to hide the pain, "Since when wouldn't _I_, the only other Soul Reaper in the living world, the person you've worked with since the very beginning, your _first friend_ in this freakin' world, understand?"

She didn't answer, just continued to stare up at him with those cold violet eyes. He shook his head, disgusted. "Fine, Rukia. I get it. I really do. And it's fine. Do whatever you want. Like I said before, I don't care"

He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away. For once, just once, he wanted to be the one that walked away first, not her.

* * *

Rukia watched Ichigo's retreating back, and leaned against the wall. It hadn't gone exactly the way she'd expected it to, but it was good enough. She'd finally washed away any rumors that had been going around about her and Ichigo, and at the same time she'd diminished any interest Ichigo'd had in her. 

But at what price? Had she lost Ichigo's friendship? It sure felt that way. He was never the one that walked away first. Was this his way of saying they were through?

Rukia buried her face in her hands. She was confused as hell. She just couldn't believe how badly everything was going. Somewhere in the distance another bell rang, telling everyone who wasn't already in class to get there, or suffer the consequences. And Rukia, in all honesty, didn't care. Class wasn't happening. Not with the headache she had.

* * *

"Psst, Ichigo!" Ichigo pulled his head off the desk and looked around at Keigo. The instructor was late, and everyone was taking advantage of it, continuing their conversations. 

"Where's Rukia?" Keigo asked, still using his stage whisper.

"How the hell should I know?"

"I heard the girls saying she left class to talk to you"

"Yeah, and when we finished talking I left, it's not my problem if she doesn't come back," maybe she'd gotten an order for a hollow and left without him. Oh well if she had. He was _done _worrying about her twenty-four/seven. She was a big girl, after all. She didn't need a babysitter.

But when she didn't return to class at all, Ichigo_ did _start worrying. What if she _had_ gone after hollow and was hurt? What if she had gone back to the Soul Society? What if...

What if he was worrying too much? Ichigo shook his head, disgusted with himself. What had happened to he was done worrying about her? God, he really _was_ pathetic.

"Ichigo!" he looked around as Tatsuki caught up with him. School was over and he wanted to get home. Maybe Rukia was there...

"What?"

"What happened to Rukia?" his old friend folded her arms, glaring him down.

"How should I know?" he snapped, "We got mad at each other and I walked away, what she did after that I don't know"

"It just seems convenient that she disappeared_ after_ talking to you"

"What do you..." Ichigo's eyes widened, "What, you think I _hurt_ her? You're crazy Tatsuki"

"I'm just saying-"

"So am I," he turned to walk away. Tatsuki stopped him again.

"You really like her, don't you?" he froze.

"What makes you think that? God, I wish you guys would just forget that damn party-"

"Even _before_ the party people thought you liked each other," Tatsuki cut in, "Michiru asked Rukia once if she had a crush on you. Of course, then it went off into this whole big thing, and Orihime started talking some kind of nonsense...not the point. So do you like her or not?"

"She's a friend"

"You know what I mean"

"I don't...no!" Ichigo folded his arms, annoyed and disgusted all at once, "I don't like her like that, would everyone just get off my back about it?!"

"Fine," Tatsuki shrugged, "But I have another question"

"Whatever," Ichigo figured he could just strangle her if he didn't want to answer the question.

"What really happened with you and Rukia after the party?"

"This again?!" Ichigo raged, "Look, you know the punch was spiked, Rukia had a little too much, so I helped her get home. _That's all_"

"Really?" Tatsuki asked incredulously, "Because Rukia says _you_ had too much punch and _she_ helped _you_ home"

Ichigo blinked. "I..." he and Rukia had never thought to get their stories straight, figure out who did what. They'd been too busy thinking about the big problems to think about the small details. After waking up in bed together, nothing else had seemed important. "I...eh..." Tatsuki was giving him a knowing smirk. "Shut up!" he snapped. Then, "How long have you known?"

"That you were lying?" he nodded, "Right from the start. Rukia told us her story, then we got yours from Keigo. Don't worry, we didn't tell him you were lying"

"Thank God," Ichigo muttered. Keigo would have been unbearable if that was the case.

"So?" Tatsuki was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"So...what?"

"So tell me!"

Ichigo sighed noisily and looked around, then said in a low voice, "You have to _swear_ not to tell _anyone_. Understand?" she nodded. "All right. Rukia and I...I'm not saying we _did_ anything, but we did wake up in bed together. That doesn't mean anything though, stop laughing!" he raised his voice angrily as Tatsuki burst out laughing, "Shut up! Look, that doesn't mean anything actually happened, it just means we...well, you know. It doesn't mean we actually...did it, knock it off!"

Tatsuki finally stopped laughing, her grin still wide, "Sorry, sorry. Anyways, I kinda knew to begin with...but like you said, it doesn't mean anything. Maybe something happened, maybe something didn't. But that's not the point"

"So are you done torturing me yet?" Ichigo grumbled, pushing his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah, I guess," she turned away, "Oh, and Ichigo?"

"What?"

"Keep an eye on Rukia; Yukio's bad news"

* * *

"Good movie, huh?" Yukio asked as they left the theater. 

"Yeah," somehow they'd ended up seeing an action movie. It was the only thing that looked halfway descent. And even _it_ hadn't been that good.

"Yeah, I really liked the part where the good guy through himself off the cliff and came back as a ghost"

"What?" Rukia looked around, surprised, "When did _that_ happen?"

"It didn't," Yukio laughed, "I just wanted to make sure you were actually paying attention"

"Of course I was," Rukia laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, all right," Yukio smiled, "You seem kind of spacey," he leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the cheek, "I'd hate to see you anywhere but with me"

She blushed. Why did he have to make this so hard? "Yukio...listen"

"Wanna go for a walk?" he indicated to the park, "Sounds like you have something you want to talk about"

She nodded, and they turned into the park. It was empty, of course; it was late. They had plenty of privacy. "Yukio..." Rukia took a deep breath, "Yukio, I think, maybe...we should...you know, see other people"

He froze. The look on his face was appropriate for someone who had just been hit over the head with a bat. "W-What?"

Rukia sighed. "You're a good person, but-"

"This is about Kurosaki, isn't it?"

It was Rukia's turn to be shocked. "Ichigo? What does he have to do with anything?"

"I saw you leave class with him," Yukio looked angry now, "And then you never came back. And he's always acted different around you, at least from what I can tell. You and he...I should have known. How long did you plan on leading me on?"

He didn't know the half of it. "I wasn't...leading you on..."

"Like hell you weren't," he was starting to scare her.

"Look...Yukio...I have to go," she turned to walk away. He grabbed her and yanked her back. "What are you...let me go!"

"No," his voice was nothing more than a low growl now, "I don't think so. You can go running to Ichigo Kurosaki, but I'm going to take one thing that bastard will never have"

Rukia was tempted to hit Yukio. Even in a Gigai, she was still stronger than an average person. But that would look bad. Very bad. She could blow her cover. But as Yukio pulled her closer, and his hot breath washed over hers, cover didn't seem to matter as much. And yet she still didn't pull herself out of his grip. "Let me go!"

"No way," he shoved her down to the ground and sat down on top of her, "Not until I get what's mine"

"What...don't..." she pushed at him, and again, the tempting thought of throwing him ten feet away crossed her mind. "Let me-"

He covered her mouth, and leaned down, his gray-blue eyes meeting her violet ones, "Stop. Don't talk. Just let me do this one thing without struggling, then you can walk away forever for all I care"

Even years later, after she had accepted it, Rukia could never fully remember what had happened. She could recall feeling her shirt being pulled off, and after that she remembered feeling her pants being tugged away...and after that it was a blur. She knew she felt hands in all the wrong places, and she could feel his mouth violating hers time after time. But it was all run together in her memory, like water over a painting. All she knew was that it didn't last long. It was only a short time later that she finally felt Yukio's body being pulled off hers, and she was able to breath freely. All she could was lay on her back and stare up at the starry sky, gasping for breath, her eyes wide. Yukio was just within her range of sight. He was pulling his shirt back on over his head. "You're mine Rukia. Don't forget that"

He left. Rukia, after what felt like an eternity, pushed herself off the ground, dressing herself with shaky hands. What had just happened? She stood up, still shaking, and took off, surprising herself at how fast she could make her feet move. Somehow she found her way onto Ichigo's street and started down. Finally, overcome, she collapsed outside Ichigo's house, and doubled over, breathing hard. Her stomach was turning terribly. She felt like she was about to throw up. Then she leaned into the bushes and did just that.

* * *

"Ichigo!" Ichigo groaned as soft, plush body bounced down on top of him. 

"Get _lost_ Kon," the orange-haired teen groaned, grabbing the annoying plush and throwing him away.

"Ichigo, get up!" Kon snapped, "Something's wrong with Rukia!"

It took Ichigo a second to process this. "Huh?"

"Something. Is. Wrong. With. Rukia!" Kon said in a slow voice, "You dimwit, get up, she's outside!"

Ichigo dragged himself up to the window, and looked out. Rukia was on her knees, leaning over one of the bushes. Ichigo bit his lip, and finally vaulted out the window, running over to her. He kneeled down next to her, "Rukia? Rukia, what's wrong?"

He laid a hand on her shoulder, and she jerked out of his grip. "L-Leave me alone," she managed to say, digging her hands into the ground and pushing herself up, "Go away"

She was shaking visibly. Her clothes were ripped, and the skin he could see was smudged with dirt. She looked terrible, all and all. "Rukia, what happened?"

"I said go away," she managed to gasp. Ichigo started to step closer, but she just stepped back.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said firmly, "Rukia, tell me what happened"

She wrapped her arms tightly around her chest and closed her eyes, bowing her head. Her hair slipped down, framing her face and hiding it from view. "Y-Yukio. He..."

Ichigo blinked. "Yukio? What did he do, Rukia?"

She shook her head and bit her lip, and without warning her knees gave out and she stumbled forward. Ichigo grabbed her right before she hit the ground, and pulled her into his arms. She tried to pull away, but he held her tightly. "Rukia," he whispered, "Talk to me. What did he do?"

* * *

**Author's Note**: I don't wanna hear "too main stream! Go die!" Because this isn't another "good guy turned rapist" story. You'll learn Yukio's story later on though, so please, put the wire coat hangers away. You won't be killing me in my sleep anytime soon. Anyways, as usual you guys blew me away with reviews this time around, though some of them were kinda...well, anyways. Somewhere between 280-290 reviews this time around would be absolutely wonderful, and I'd love you guys for life (and I might be more compelled to update). My new goal for the entire story is 300, so let's see if that happens. Anyways, review! - Sam

**Edit - 03/01/08: **There, I added a disclaimer for everyone. The rating should tell you this isn't a happy fluffy bunny story, but seriously, you wouldn't believe how many reviews I've gotten (especially the last few weeks, for some reason) saying that they don't like the rape thing, and won't finish reading the story because of it. FYI, I don't really care if you're not going to finish reading the story. I didn't even know people still _read _this story, seeing as how it's been finished for months now.


	11. Confrontation

**Chapter 11 – **Confrontation

"I'll kill him," Ichigo said, slamming his fist into his hand, "I'll fucking murder him. That bastard. When I get my hands on him he's going to wish he'd moved away when he first moved here"

Rukia wrapped Ichigo's blanket tightly around her slim shoulders. She'd just finished telling Ichigo what had happened. He was taking it better than she thought he would. "Ichigo, causing trouble won't help anything," she said in a low voice.

"It'll help me mentally," he informed her, "God Rukia, how can you just sit there? How can you _not_ want to tear his head off and use it for soccer?"

"Thanks for the images," she muttered, "I didn't say I wouldn't love to hurt him. But rash actions won't help anything here. We just have to stay calm"

"Calm?!" Ichigo's voice went through Rukia's hurting head like a knife.

"Ichigo, shut up," she hissed, not willing to talk any louder. He looked around, and saw that she was hurting.

"Calm?" he repeated in a lower voice, "Rukia how can I be calm? He...he..."

"I know what he did Ichigo," she curled her knees up under her chin, and wrapped her arms tightly around them, "I know what he did. I've been paying attention, I was there. Just...don't do anything that you're going to regret"

Ichigo growled under his breath. It was obvious he was disgusted with her. "Please," she said quietly, shrugging his blanket off and standing up on shaky feet, "Forget about it. All right? For now...let's just go to bed. It's been a long night"

He looked her over. "Well...are you sure you're okay?"

"As good as I'll get," she muttered, walking over to the closet and refusing to look at him. She crawled into the closet, suddenly tired. She wanted desperately to sleep. "Good night"

"Night," he muttered as she shut the door.

* * *

Ichigo jarred awake. It was sometime after midnight. It took him a second to figure out why he had woken up so suddenly, then realized; Rukia was thrashing around and yelling in the closet. He jumped out of bed at once and rushed over, yanking the door open. He grabbed her by the shoulders and held her down hard, "Rukia, wake up!" 

Her eyes flew open and she bolted up, Ichigo's hands slipping from her shoulders. She was covered in cold sweat, gasping for breath. "Hey, okay," he muttered, not willing to do anything that involved touching her. He had a very good idea as to what she had been dreaming about, and didn't want to make it worse. "It's all right, it was just a dream-"

"No it wasn't," she muttered, "No it wasn't. It was real"

Her entire body was shaking. She'd curled up tightly, wrapping her arms around her legs and pulling them up under her chin. After a second Ichigo reached over and carefully pushed a small lock of raven hair out of her eyes. He was supposed to let Yukio get away with this? No one hurt _his_ Rukia and got away with it.

* * *

Ichigo's eyes scanned the grounds from the roof during lunch the next day. As soon as he saw who he was looking for... 

"Looking for someone?" Chad asked Ichigo, sounding mildly interested.

"Yeah"

"Who?"

But before Ichigo could answer, he found him. He pushed himself up and took off downstairs. His friends followed, after a minute of confusion. "Ichigo, what are you-"

Yukio didn't even see Ichigo coming. But in the blink of an eye, the orange-haired teen had the scumbag against a tree, holding him by the neck. "What the hell...let go!"

"You didn't let _her_ go, did you?" Ichigo growled through his teeth, "You didn't listen to her when she said stop, did you? If you didn't listen to her, why should I listen to you?"

By now everyone was watching. "Let me go," Yukio said angrily, "What I do is none of your business, got it?"

Ichigo pushed him harder into the tree, "Like hell it isn't!"

"Ichigo!" Rukia pushed through the crowd and rushed forward, "Stop!"

"Rukia stay out of it, this doesn't involve you"

"Like hell it doesn't!" she snapped, forgetting for a second where they were. "This isn't the place to settle scores Ichigo, let go!"

His hand twitched, and he pulled away. Yukio glared at Ichigo furiously. "You're lucky she was here," Ichigo informed the boy angrily, "Otherwise I woulda kicked your ass"

"Like I'm scared of you," Yukio shot back, "I can take you easy"

Rukia turned her sharp, violet eyes to Yukio, but before she could cut in Ichigo said, "Yeah, whatever," then grabbed Rukia's arm and pulled her away from the scum. They managed, more or less, to escape prying eyes. But when they turned the corner they found themselves facing Orihime and Tatsuki, who had been watching from afar.

"What the hell was that all about?" Tatsuki was the first to speak. She looked between Rukia, who was determinedly looking at the ground, and Ichigo, who looked ready to murder someone. "Well?"

"What's going on?" Orihime added, speaking quietly. She could tell _something_ was wrong.

Ichigo, knowing it wasn't his place to explain anything, looked over at Rukia. Her violet eyes were still focused on the ground, but she shook her head a fraction of an inch, enough for Ichigo to see, and understand what she was saying: _I don't want to talk about it_

"Nothing," Ichigo looked back at Tatsuki and Orihime, "Just, you know, blowing off steam. That Yukio kid really bugs me"

It was probably the lamest excuse he'd ever come up with. And he didn't care. He wasn't going to explain anything if Rukia didn't want the news to get out. And it was obvious she didn't. "Try again Ichigo," Tatsuki, of course, was far from fooled.

"It's nothing," Rukia spoke at last, her voice quiet, barely above a whisper, "Yukio just...did something Ichigo didn't like. Don't worry about it though. It's nothing"

"What'd he do?" Rukia and Ichigo were spared having to answer by the bell ringing. They both darted off to get their stuff, leaving Orihime and Tatsuki feeling very confused.

* * *

"You shoulda let me pound the piece of scum," the last bell had just rang. Ichigo and Rukia were walking together, pointedly ignoring the stares of everyone around them. 

"Not on school grounds Ichigo, you'd be suspended"

"Like I care," they walked out onto the sidewalk. Ichigo shoved his left hand into his pocket and slung his schoolbag over his right shoulder. Rukia kept her gaze on the road ahead, and Ichigo saw a dullness in her eyes that he knew hadn't been there before. "Are you okay?" it was a stupid question, really.

"Absolutely fine," how'd he know she was going to say that?

"I'm serious"

"So am I"

Aggravated now, Ichigo grabbed her shoulder and jerked her around to face him. She flinched noticeably, and he quickly let go. "Sorry, I-"

"Forget about it," she brushed him off and turned away, "Ichigo...please. I just wanna forget about it, all right?"

"No," Ichigo struggled to keep the anger out of his voice, "No, it's not all right. How can you just forget about it? I can you not want...I dunno, revenge, maybe? If it were me-"

"It's not you though," she turned to face him again, "It's not you, and that's the whole point. It's me. And I'll handle it whatever way I want to. And if I just want to forget it ever happened, I'll forget it ever happened. You can't control my thoughts Ichigo"

Ichigo blinked, not bothering to hide his surprise. "I...you're right, I wasn't trying to control you or anything, I just..."

"Just what?" she narrowed her eyes, and Ichigo could have sworn he saw a flicker of light, "What do you _just_ Ichigo?"

He couldn't look her in the eye anymore. He shifted his gaze upward, towards the sky. How could the sun shine so happily, how could the clouds be so fluffy and white, and the sky so blue, after what had happened? How could everything seem...normal?

"I just...don't like to think about someone hurting you," he finally muttered, "Not when I'm around. When I'm around, I protect you"

"You weren't around though," she started to walk away, "You can't always be around. You can't always protect me"

He watched her retreating back._ No, but I can sure as hell try_

* * *

Ichigo found Yukio at the coffee shop. Determined to appear civilized, the orange-haired teen beat down the urge to take Yukio's steaming hot coffee and dump it all over his blond head. Instead he walked over to the table and sat down. Yukio looked up from his cup. "What can I do for you Kurosaki?" there was cold politeness to his tone. "Come to apologize for what happened at school?" 

"Like hell I have," Ichigo growled, "I came to tell you to stay the fuck away from Rukia. Got that? You so much as look at her the wrong way and I'll kill you, I don't care what she says"

Yukio smirked, his gray-blue eyes shining malevolently. "Bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Yeah it bothers me!" Ichigo snapped, keeping his voice low, "She's a friend, I don't want to see her hurt!"

"No, that's not it," Yukio laughed, "It's not that she's a friend, it's that_ I _got her before you did. I bet you've stayed up late, thinking about what it'd be like to get her clothes off her, to be her first. Well I beat you to it. Bothers you, doesn't it?"

What bothered Ichigo was how true Yukio's statement – about Ichigo thinking about it – had been. How had Yukio known? "You're a sick bastard," Ichigo growled, "If I ever find out you hurt her again, I'll tear you limb from limb. As it stands now I'd like to kill you, but unfortunately we're in a public place. Just stay away from Rukia. Got it?"

"And if I don't?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"What if I _don't _stay away from her?" Yukio elaborated, "What if, one night, I see her walking down the street, and I decide to get very – _very_ – close to her. What are you gonna do then, Kurosaki?"

"I already told you, didn't I?" Ichigo clenched his fists furiously; he could feel his nails drawing blood. "I'll kill you, plain and simple"

"Yeah right," Yukio rolled his eyes, "Empty threats Kurosaki"

Ichigo jumped up, slamming his hands down on the table. The coffee shop went very, very quiet. "I warned you Ryuichi; stay away from Rukia, otherwise you'll have _me_ to answer to"

He stormed away without another word, letting the door to the coffee shop slam behind him. He shoved his hands into his pockets, Yukio's words still ringing in his mind.

"_Bothers you, doesn't it?... it's that_ I_ got her before you did...I bet you've stayed up late, thinking about what it'd be like to get her clothes off her, to be her first...I beat you to it..."_

Ichigo took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. He wanted to hit something, but hitting things when he was angry was a habit he really wanted to break. So instead he kept his hands jammed his pockets, and threw glares at random people passing by him. He knew perfectly well this wasn't the last they'd hear from Yukio. But Ichigo knew this much; if that bastard ever went near Rukia again, Ichigo _would_ kill him.

* * *

**Author's Note**: And soooo...the drama unfolds. Yay. Anyways, plot came back to bite me (again) so I'm cutting this down another chapter. It's now going to be 12 chapters and an epilogue. Which means...oh, hang on a second /runs out and comes back in wearing a hard hat/ the story is going to be pretty much over in the next chapter. Now, before anyone gets pissed at me, I have a little tidbit to leave you with: I have a sequel in the works for this. After the epilogue, I want some opinions on whether or not I should publish said sequel (**Note**: There's _A LOT_ more IchiRuki in it). So please, don't get mad that the story is wrapping up. Also, for those that haven't seen, I have a new story called "All In Your Head" that's gotten some good reviews. So, after this, if you're not interested in a sequel, I'd say check that one out (it's IchiRuki, of course). Anyways, reviews...let's say between 330-340. Oh, and to the few people that asked "Why don't you ask for more reviews?" it's because I don't want to seem conceded or anything. Oh, and because you guys shattered my review goal (again) I have a new one: 350. Can you make a girls dreams come true? Oh, and for this of you who are saying "Wait a minute, what's Yukio's story?" I forgot to mention before; you won't find out until the Epilogue. Don't kill me! - Sam 


	12. Protecting Her

**Chapter 12** – Protecting Her

The next few days passed more or less uneventfully. Ichigo was careful to keep Rukia close to him, all though she wasn't overly fond of it. He didn't tell her about his talk with Yukio; she'd be pissed if she found out Ichigo went after the piece of dirt. After all, she just wanted to forget it. She wouldn't even let him go to the police, which aggravated him deeply. But he knew better than to say anything to her about it, unless he wanted a sore ass (which he didn't). But things weren't all normal.

All though she tried to hide it, Ichigo knew Rukia was still having nightmares. He would hear her thrashing around in the closet at night, sometimes accompanied with yelling, though more often than not she kept quiet. It bothered Ichigo in so many ways. He'd never known Rukia to have a nightmare, she'd never been scared enough. But to hear her in the closet at night, it really bugged Ichigo. It made him want to find Yukio and tear him limb from limb.

"Rukia, do you think-"

"Ichigo, shut up"

Ichigo closed his mouth at once, scowling. "You don't even know what I was going to say"

"I know enough," she looked up from the book she was reading, "I know it was going to be something that involved..._him_ and going to the police. And I've already told you _no_"

"How can you be okay with letting him walk around like he owns the place?!" Ichigo said furiously, losing his temper, "How can you-"

"Ichigo!" Rukia slammed the book shut angrily, "We've already talked about this, why do you keep pushing it?!"

"Because I don't understand you, Rukia!" he shot back, "How can you just be okay with everything, how can you pretend nothing's happening, Why are you trying so hard to just forget?!"

"Why are _you_ trying so hard to make me remember?!" with that she jumped up off the bed, threw down the book she was reading, and darted into the closet, slamming the door behind her. Ichigo leaned back in his chair, feeling faintly annoyed and guilty.

He should have known better than to push it, but hell, he was upset. He didn't understand why Rukia didn't even want to report to the police. But on the other hand...he understood. To a degree, anyway. He understood that Rukia would have given nothing more than to just forget that she had, in fact, been raped. He got that. He wouldn't have minded forgetting about it either, wouldn't have minded forgetting that he had failed to protect Rukia. But the idea of Yukio's hand all over Rukia... it made Ichigo want to kill someone, particularly Yukio.

Well, at least one good thing had come out of this; Rukia was back with Ichigo. Wait, wrong choice of words. She'd never been with him to begin with, she couldn't exactly be _back_ with him. But she was away from Yukio. And unless hell froze over, she wouldn't go back to him anytime soon. Plus, things had gone back to normal between Ichigo and Rukia. Well, as normal as things got between a Soul Reaper and the substitute she gave her powers to. They could at least stand to be in the same room with each other, and now more or less enjoyed each other's company. Unless Ichigo started pushing about going to the police. That was when Rukia booked it into the closet or out the window, whichever happened to be more convenient. And where it was raining tonight and the window was closed, the closet was easier.

Ichigo sighed and put the earphones back into his ears, blasting them out with music. He knew he should have pushed at Rukia more, but she made it more than obvious she wanted to be left alone. And he wasn't about to mess up what little bit of normality had been brought back between them.

* * *

Late into the night the rain turned into a thunder storm. Loud booms echoed through the air, accompanied by the flash of lightning that lit the sky, giving it an odd look of daytime for just a second. Ichigo, unable to sleep, lay in bed with his hands curled under his head, staring out the window, watching chains of lightning dance across the sky, barely blinking when thunder sounded. He really wanted to be able to just sleep. Ever since Rukia started having the nightmares, he hadn't been able to get a full night's sleep. Tonight, though, she was being quiet, and Ichigo knew he should have taken advantage of that fact and used it. Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen.

It was around three a.m. Another thunder boom had just echoed through the sky, and Ichigo was just starting to fall asleep when he heard a loud banging noise from the closet. He jerked out of his semi-doze at once. "So much for sleep," he muttered, throwing back the covers and swinging his legs out of bed. Usually he let her go until she calmed down again, but tonight he just wanted to sleep. "Hey," he yanked open the closet door just as she was jarring awake.

"W-What-" she looked over at Ichigo and her wide stare became a glare, "What the hell do you want?"

"Yeah, good morning to you too," he grumbled, "How about an apology for freakin' waking me up?"

"How'd I wake you up?"

"Well, when things start going bump in my closet, I tend to notice-"

"Oh shut up," Rukia grabbed her blanket and yanked it over her head, obviously annoyed, "What am I supposed to do about it, exactly?"

Ichigo softened at once. He knew damn well there was nothing she could about the nightmares. He shouldn't have been blowing off steam on her about it. "Nothing. Just forget it. Is there...I mean, are you okay?"

The blanket was still over her head, and he couldn't see her face. But he heard her soft tone. "No. I'm not okay. I hate this, Ichigo, I hate it. I hate seeing it in my head, over and over, and there's never anything I can do, I can't change it, I can't make it stop. That's what I want most of all. I want the nightmares to just stop"

Ichigo could practically feel his heart breaking. He hated hearing her sound so scared, so weak. And he hated not being able to do anything about it, not being able to help her. First he hadn't been able to protect her. Now he couldn't help her get over what had happened. Just how freaking useless was he? "It's all right," he said, reaching and over and pulling the blanket down so he could look at her again. She was staring up blankly, her violet eyes lifeless. "I mean...it's not all right per say, but...you know"

"No, I don't know. How about you explain it to me?"

"Well, actually, I was hoping you _would _know, 'cause I don't either"

Rukia rolled her eyes, looking faintly annoyed. "Look," Ichigo said finally, "Not trying to sound mean or anything, but I need a good night's sleep and so do you. Is there anything I can – at all – to make the nightmares...I dunno, stop, maybe?"

"Not unless you can be in my dreams"

"Great," Ichigo sighed and leaned against the closet door frame. "Well...you know, in the dreams, what...I mean, I know what's happening but I...during the dreams, how do you feel?"

"You mean besides incredibly disgusted with myself?" she scowled heavily, "I feel...alone, I guess. I mean,_ he's_ there, but I still feel...so alone"

Alone? Ichigo played with the thought in her head. Alone. If there was a way to make her feel less alone? A sudden thought hit Ichigo, and his eyes widened. Oh no. Oh hell, friggin'_ no_. There was no way...he wouldn't...he'd kill her for suggesting it...

"Ichigo?" he blinked and looked over at Rukia, who seemed confused, "Are you okay? You look a little...well, are you okay?"

No choice. Not if he wanted to sleep, anyway. "Er...I know a way we might able to...but I mean, if you don't want to...we'll think of something else..."

"Ichigo, spit it out already"

"All right, all right, maybe we could, you know, uh...sleep together?" Rukia blinked. "Okay, that came out very wrong...I didn't mean it like...like _that_ you know, I just meant...maybe if someone else was with you, you wouldn't feel so...alone, you know, if you knew someone else was close to you, it would help-"

"I get what you mean, Ichigo," she cut through his babbling, "I get it, really I do but...I don't know, I mean, it just seems...I dunno"

"Hey, I get it if you don't want to," he said quickly, "Trust me, I get it, it was a stupid idea, I shouldn't have said it-"

They were both stalling. They knew it was the only suggestion if either of them wanted to sleep, but they didn't want to get on with it. "We don't...have much of a choice in the matter, do we?" Rukia said finally, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Well, we could forget it ever happened"

"Maybe you haven't noticed, Ichigo, but forgetting things never works"

"Good point," Ichigo sighed, stepping aside to let Rukia out of the closet. She crawled out, looking a little more than apprehensive. They walked over to Ichigo's bed, shuffling from foot to foot, feeling put out.

"Well...after you"

"No, you first, I insist"

They had a silent argument with each other. In the end, Ichigo won, and Rukia crawled into the bed. After a minute of trying to come up with an excuse to leave, Ichigo crawled in next to her. He noticed that she was trying to keep a space between them. He obliged and helped out with the cause, laying on his back inching away from her just a little. It felt almost like the morning they had woken up in bed together. "Er," he said after a second, "I don't know about you, but I um...don't feel all that comfortable on my back"

"Yeah...me neither," and with that they rolled over. What they didn't realize until it was a second too late was that they had rolled over to face each other. Wide amber eyes met shocked violet, and in the time it took to breath Ichigo flipped over onto his other side so that his back was to Rukia instead of his face. They laid in silence for a few seconds, then Rukia said in a small voice, "Ichigo?"

"What's up?"

"I'm uh...sorry. About yelling at you earlier, I mean"

"It's fine. I don't blame you for getting mad," he muttered, "I'm sorry for...you know, pushing you too much"

He heard some movement behind him, and realized Rukia was inching closer to him. "It's fine. You mean well. Even if you_ are_ a moron"

He bristled at that. "Ah...shut up"

She laughed lightly and her hand brushed against his back. The momentary contact sent shivers up his spine. "Well...good night then"

"Good night," his eyes drifted shut, and just as he slipped into a comfortable unconsciousness, he felt Rukia's body push up closer to his. And he smiled.

* * *

When Rukia woke up the next morning, she was confused. The sun was bathing over her face, which was weird in itself, considering the sun never shined into the closet. And that was when she noticed another presence in the bed with her.

She bolted up, scared, her eyes wide. "Ah...Rukia?" she looked around and saw Ichigo sitting up next to her. "Are you okay?"

Oh. Right. Ichigo wanted to sleep, she wanted to sleep. So they – well, he really – had come up with the idea to sleep together. "Rukia?"

"I'm fine," she said quickly, running a hand through her hair, "Just kind of...forgot what happened last night"

"Oh. Deja vu?" he was smirking.

"Oh shut up," she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Anyways, we should probably get ready...you know, for school"

"Oh right," he jumped out of bed quickly. Rukia smiled weakly. Once she had gotten over the initial shock, she had to admit, it was kind of nice, waking up in bed next to Ichigo.

* * *

They got through another day without incident, though Ichigo noticed Yukio was looking over at Rukia quite a bit. The orange-haired Soul Reaper's blood boiled at the thought of what might have been going through Yukio's mind as he stared at the violet-eyed girl. If Ichigo didn't stop thinking like this, he was going to drive himself mad.

Rukia shifted uncomfortably as tried to pay attention to what was going on in class. But her head was spinning weirdly, and she just couldn't bring herself to focus. Everything was out of whack. She couldn't stand it anymore. Part of her wouldn't have minded going to the police and having Yukio's ass arrested. But most of her just really wanted to forget anything had ever happened. If it wasn't for those damn nightmares, she would have been able to do it all together. But Ichigo had solved that, hadn't he?

"So...what are we going to do tonight?" Ichigo looked up at Rukia, who was already in her pajamas, as was he. It was almost time for bed, and they were trying to decide what was going to happen now. "I mean, are you...do you want to sleep alone or..."

Rukia would never, in a million, trillion years, not on her death bed, not even under the influence of torture, admit it, she wanted to be with Ichigo again that night. She wanted to feel his body next to hers, wanted to-

_Ugh! _She slapped herself mentally, _Knock it off!_

"Rukia?" she quickly looked back at Ichigo, who was still waiting for an answer.

"Um, well...I..."

"Go on, admit it," he smirked cruelly, "You're too scared to stay by yourself, you need someone to protect you, doncha?"

"Shut up," she snapped, though inside she was glowing. Ichigo had opened up the opportunity for her. She didn't have to say anything, he had given her the chance.

"All right then, just get over here"

She made sure to kick him before she laid down.

Hours later, Ichigo was fast asleep, and Rukia was no closer to it than she had been when she first laid down. She just wasn't tired, no matter what she tried to do. Next to her, Ichigo stirred and started muttering under his breath. Curious, Rukia pushed herself up onto her elbows and leaned over him, trying to hear what he was saying. "Mmm...Ruki...a..."

Rukia blinked and quickly scooted away, deciding she didn't want to know what he was dreaming about. After a minute, she scooted out of bed and got dressed. She needed to take a walk.

Barely paying attention to where she was going, Rukia walked and walked. Farther away from Ichigo, farther away from the thoughts that had been haunting her. But she had forgotten about the other thing that haunted her. Well, forgot it until it grabbed her and dragged her into an alley.

"_Ow_! Let go, who-" she twisted around to glare at her attacker, and found herself face to face with Yukio. "Damn you," she hissed, yanking her arm out of his grip, "You got what you wanted, bastard, get the hell away from me!"

"Sorry Rukia," he hissed into her ear, "But unfortunately I can't have you and your little idiot Kurosaki running around anymore. I don't need anyone going to the police, not now"

"I said let me go!" she whirled around and kicked him in the knee. He grunted as he stumbled backwards. "You did your part, you've hurt me enough, just leave me the hell alone"

"Or what?" he pulled a knife out of his back pocket. Rukia blinked and stared at it. It was almost enough to make her laugh. She'd faced off against hollows and nearly been killed, she had looked death in the eye when she was supposed to be executed, and here she was, looking at the tip of a knife. She would have laughed if Yukio wasn't about to take said knife and plunge it into her chest. If that wasn't a factor, it would have been hilarious.

"What, gonna stab me? Not exactly a clean job"

"You're dead, it doesn't matter whether or not it was clean," he dove at her. Rukia moved out of the way, and he hit the wall. "You bitch," he hissed, looking back at her, "I'll make you pay for that, I swear-"

He was cut off by a fist connecting with his face. The knife was sent flying from his hand and he stumbled back. "What the hell..." a sly smirk replaced the look of anger, "Well what do ya know, it's Kurosaki to the rescue"

"Yeah, that's what I do best," Ichigo shot back, his fists clenched, "I rescue people"

"Well let's see if you can rescue yourself," and Yukio dove at Ichigo, swinging his fist. It caught Ichigo in the side of the head and threw him back.

"You asshole," he said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to enjoy this _way_ more than I should"

He grabbed Yukio by the cuff of the shirt and flung him against the wall, then raised his fist and hit Yukio square in the face. Then he flung Yukio to the ground, walked over to him, and kicked him in the stomach. Yukio's leg swung out to meet Ichigo's, but the orange-haired teen was faster yet. He jumped out of the way of the attack, then grabbed Yukio and pulled him up so his feet were dangling a few inches off the ground. Yukio glared at him through squinted eyes. "You really gonna kill me, Kurosaki?"

"As a matter of fact I am," he drew his fist back, ready to deliver one last blow-

"Ichigo, _no_!" a small but strong hand grabbed hold of Ichigo's and pulled him back. Rukia looked up into Ichigo's face, her eyes set.

"Let _go_ Rukia," he growled, trying to pull his arm out of Rukia's grip. But Rukia held firm.

"You're not killer Ichigo"

He blinked and looked oddly at Yukio. After a second he flung the boy from his grip. Yukio banged his head against the wall and was out instantly. "So can we go to the police now?"

Rukia stared at him for a second. A small smile spread cracked on her serious face, then she started laughing. "And just what's so funny?" Ichigo asked, scowling.

"You, well...never-mind," she shook her head, still smiling, and Ichigo cherished the sparkle in her eyes. She looked so alive.

They stared at each other for a second, then Rukia did something amazing; she stood up on her tip-toes, and her lips met his. Ichigo was surprised, to say the least, but he didn't fight back. And for a few seconds, all was forgotten.

* * *

**Author's Note** – They, they...they kissed/fangirl-like squeal/ Anyways, yes, this is the last actual chapter. The next one is just an epilogue, wrapping everything up and...you know, all that happy stuff. Point is, it's over /sad face/ I'm really going to miss this story...but yeah. Sorry Ichigo didn't actually kill Yukio, but you know, murder's kinda illegal, and he would have gone to jail and everything - Yeah, I know, it would have been worth it, but how could Ichi and Rukia be together if he's in jail? Yeah. Anyways, I've given up on reviews limits, it's not really worth it; for one thing this is basically the last chapter (not counting the epilogue) and for another the limits I set are always too small. So, review and let me know what you think! -Sam 


	13. —Epilogue— Worth the Risk

**Epilogue** – Worth The Risk

Rukia Kuchiki looked up at the starry sky from her perch on the Kurosaki roof top. The stars seemed so far away...but at the same time she swore she could have touched them. She closed her violet eyes and breathed in the night air. It was so comforting...

"Hey," she opened her eyes and looked around as Ichigo Kurosaki climbed up onto the roof next to her. "Wondering where you went"

She looked back at the sky without answering. "It was on the news," Ichigo said after a moment of very awkward silence, "They didn't use your name, but they used his, so if anyone from school was watching, they'll probably make some assumptions"

It had been two nights since the attack. It felt like it had just happened though. "I'll deal with it," she said, "I can handle a few questions, it's no big deal. I've dealt with questions before. About a lot worse stuff. Like the two of us"

Ichigo laughed shortly. "Yeah, you got a point there"

He sat down next to her and looked up. "So what's so interesting about the sky?"

"The stars are just so pretty..."

Ichigo blinked, staring at her weirdly. "Rukia? Did you hit your head?"

She laughed, despite herself. "Very funny. I'm not allowed to be spacey every once and awhile?"

"Nah, that's Orihime's job"

Rukia shook her head. "So what are you hiding?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell you're hiding something," she looked over at him, "Spit it out"

Ichigo scowled. "Well, you see...it's about Yukio," her body stiffened involuntarily. "Nothing like that!" he added hastily, "It's just...apparently, you...you weren't the first girl he...hurt"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "He told the police," Ichigo continued in a low voice, "Gave 'em names and everything. And when they got in contact with the girls...he did some pretty nasty things to them Rukia. It's terrible to think about, but...well, if it makes you feel any better – not that it would – you weren't the first. Guess that's why it was so easy for him to get to you. He knew what he was doing"

"But why?"

"Probably 'cause he knew he was screwed anyways"

"No, why did he do it in the first place?"

Ichigo blinked in surprise. "I dunno, he's just a sick bastard, I suppose. Does it really matter? I mean, he hurt people, does it matter why?"

"Yeah, it does," Rukia's soft tone was even surprising her, "It matters. The girls he hurt...don't they deserve a reason?"

"Don't you deserve a reason?" Ichigo had noticed that she didn't seem to be including herself in the count.

"No, I have a reason already"

This definitely surprised Ichigo. "What?"

Rukia took a deep breath. What the hell, why not tell him now? He deserved to know. "Because...I was just using him"

"You were...what?" Ichigo didn't follow, "What do you mean?"

"Idiot," she scolded under her breath, "I mean I was just going with him to make you stop liking me. Not that he realized that, he thought I was using him to make you jealous"

Ichigo was lost now. "Make me...what?"

Rukia rolled her eyes. "After that damn party-" they were back to that again, "Everyone kept talking about, you know..._us_. And I didn't want you to get any ideas, because I know we can never be together because of the Soul Society, and who we are. So I just...used Yukio to help you realize that _we_ could never be"

Ichigo looked at her for a second, his amber eyes wide with shock. Then he burst out laughing. "What?!" Rukia snapped, looking over at him.

"You...are...such...an...idiot..." he managed to say. Annoyed, she grabbed him by the back of the shirt and attempted to shove him off the roof. He grabbed the edge and held on. Barely. He pulled himself back up and glared daggers at the midget Soul Reaper, who smirked back. Once he had recovered he said, "You're an idiot, you know that right?"

"Oh shut up"

"Well you are!" he protested, "I mean, seriously...going out with a person just to make someone else stop liking you...you have no idea how the human mind really works, does it?"

"Not really interested in knowing"

"If you go out with another person, you're just going to make a person who likes you even _more_ jealous!"

"So you admit you were jealous?"

"...Oh shut up"

Rukia just smirked again. "No, go on; you were jealous"

"I was not freakin' jealous!" Ichigo snapped, his face as red as Renji's hair, "Just shut up!"

"No, come on Ichigo, say it; you were jealous of Yukio," Rukia was almost laughing now.

"Like I'd _ever_ be jealous of that no good pretty boy," Ichigo muttered, folding his arms and pouting. Rukia smiled, sincerely this time.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I really didn't have any interest in him," Ichigo perked up at this.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. So you can put your jealousy to rest"

"Good," then, "_I wasn't jealous_!"

Rukia _did_ laugh this time, then went back to her stargazing. After a minute she said, "These last few months have been pretty weird, huh?"

"I'll say," Ichigo muttered, running a hand through his hair, "I mean, waking up in bed together, listening to everyone at school saying we were kissing right before we left..."

"Did you ever, uh...remember anything else?"

"No," she could tell he was being honest, "Did you?"

"No," she sighed, "Too bad. A person should be able to remember their first kiss..."

"Yeah..." it took what a second for what she said to sink in, "Wait, what do you mean first kiss?"

"Have you ever kissed someone before?"

"Well, no. You mean you haven't either?"

She shrugged. "No. Never met anyone I cared enough for"

Ichigo was shocked. "But, how could...I mean, a girl like you..."

"A girl like me?" she looked around, amused. "What kind of girl am I, Ichigo?"

His face could now put Renji's hair to shame. "I uh...didn't mean it like that..."

"You started, now finish; what kind of girl am I, Ichigo?"

"Well, you, I mean...you're...any guy would be lucky to..." he sucked at trying to explain things, "you know, lucky to have you...I thought Yukio was," he finished in a mutter. Rukia's eyes lit up.

"You _were_ jealous!"

"All right!" the orange-haired teen lost his patience. "All right, I was jealous! Happy?! I was freakin' jealous because you were going out with Yukio right after we, we..."

"Woke up in bed together?" she suggested, "Possibly made love? Ichigo, I already told you, those are the _reasons _I did what I did"

"Well I didn't know that," he snapped, "All I knew was you were making my life a total living hell"

The amused smile slid off her face, replaced by a look of pure sadness. "I'm sorry," she muttered, looking away, "I didn't mean to make your life hard"

Ichigo allowed himself to relax. Just a little. "I didn't mean it like that. Look, Rukia. These last few months...of pretending...I never thought I'd say this, but they've been hard"

She nodded. "I know. I didn't like it either. Still don't, as a matter of fact. But...I really want to stay here, Ichigo. And if the Soul Society ever thought we were more than just friends...I couldn't"

"I know," Ichigo sighed. "I know. We can't be together. I get that"

They stayed silent for a good five minutes, then spoke at the same time. "Rukia-"

"Ichigo-"

They both blinked, and Ichigo said, "Go ahead"

"No, you," he sighed.

"I was just gonna say...would it be worth the risk?" she looked over at him, "I don't...want to go back to being just friends, or just partners. I...I dunno. I know you wanna stay here, and God, I want you to stay. But I don't think I can do the just friendship thing anymore. Would it be worth it...to at least try?"

A small smile played around Rukia's lips. "I was gonna say the exact same thing," she smiled and moved a little closer to Ichigo, "What the Soul Society doesn't know...won't hurt them, right?"

Ichigo was surprised at how close they were now. Ever since what had happened with Yukio, she hadn't cared very much to be touched. Not that Ichigo blamed her. Now though...she didn't seem to mind being close to him. "Yeah. What the Soul Society don't know won't hurt them"

Rukia smiled. "Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

"Ever since the day after...that night. There's something I've wanted to do"

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

She tilted her head up, and he caught a devilish glow in her violet eyes, right before she pushed herself up, and her lips connected with his. And Ichigo was sure he'd died and gone to heaven. Or...the Soul Society. Whichever.

She pulled away after a few seconds. Ichigo could see that her cheeks had turned slightly red. "You know," he said conversationally, "We go to school tomorrow, people are going to be talking a lot about Yukio"

"So?"

"We could give them something else to talk about if we walk in together"

"Yeah, we could," Rukia smirked, and slipped her hand into his. After a moment's hesitation he wrapped an arm around her slim shoulder, and she rested her head on his chest. "Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

"These last few months have been hell, right?"

"Definitely"

"And they're something we never want to go through again, right?"

"Of course"

"Good," a small smile spread across her face as she closed her eyes.

"Don't you dare fall asleep up here"

"Ichigo?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up. You're ruining the moment"

* * *

**Author's Note**: That seemed like the best way to end it XD That's as close of a confession of love as those two will get unless you want it to go totally OOC. Anyways, it's been quite a ride, I must say. I never thought when I posted this "one-shot" back in June, it would be such a big hit.

Before I wrap up for a good, I have a few things I would like to say. First off, this story has been one trip after another for me. From praise to death threats, I've loved each and every review you guys have given, and appreciate all the input more than you'll ever know. So I'd just like to thank everyone that took the time to review; you all rock, and I'll never be able to say how much I love you for it (though...not like that). I've written a lot in my time (I had another account here, but I ended up deleting it because I wasn't into the shows I had written about anymore, and I wanted to start over), but this story is easily, no contest, the most popular thing I've written. And it's thanks to you guys – the readers who took the time to review – that it's gotten to be so popular. You inspired me a lot (the death threats gave me motivation to write, lmao XD). Anyways, before I start to sound like a complete moron, I'll wrap up this sentimental part; thank you everyone, for sticking through to the end of this. You all rock

Now for the fun part: should I publish the sequel? If you want more IchiRuki, you're probably going to say yes. If you don't care...you don't care, it's no big. All right then. That's that. Review with your thoughts on the story and whether or not I should publish the sequel. If I don't end up publishing that, there's still always "All In Your Head". But anyways...that's all I've got

**Sequel Information**: Here are things to know about the sequel, which I will most likely publish:

**Title:** Worth the Risk

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Rukia and Ichigo decided five years ago that they would take a chance and be together. But now the stakes are higher, and the world they've come to love is about to crash down around them

Adios peeps! Sequel, if published, will be up in about a week's time. Lots of love - Sam


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